<p class="title">A group of birders carried out a survey on pelagic birds and spotted as many as 43 species of pelagic birds off the Mangaluru coast.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The group recorded White-cheeked tern for the first time on the Karnataka coast and Persian Shearwater was sighted after a decade, informed bird enthusiast Shivashankar.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"White-cheeked tern is a fantastic pelagic with lots of action. A Persian Shearwater, Long-tailed Skuas, and many White-cheeked terns stole the show, along with roving schools of a smallish Tuna and a huge Marlin jumping out of the water,” said Shivashankar, who is working as a software engineer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A total of 35 birders had participated in the survey covering Bunder, Old Port, Tannirbavi and surrounding areas.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Shivashankar told <em><span class="italic">DH</span></em> that the Tuna schools had forced other smaller fish to the surface, which in turn attracted many Common, White-cheeked, Lesser Crested Terns and the Shearwater.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Many Skuas also enjoyed this as they had many Terns to harass,” he said with a smile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We have been doing this survey as part of our hobby and many MSc/PhD students had attended it as part of their curriculum," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They usually conduct such surveys with the fisheries department of Mangaluru. The previous survey was conducted in March 2021.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Incidentally, Shivashankar, along with Dr K Prabhakar Achar, a biologist (who had also served as a research associate at IISc, Bengaluru), had published a bilingual volume on the avifauna of coastal and hinterland Karnataka, titled 'Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka', a few years ago.</p>.<p><strong>Variety of birds</strong></p>.<p>Some of the species of pelagic birds spotted include White-cheeked tern, White-breasted waterhen, Pomarine Jaeger, Parasitic Jaeger, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Bridled tern, Gull-billed tern, Caspian tern, Common tern, Great Crested tern, Sandwich tern, Little Cormorant, Indian Cormorant, Gray Heron, Great Egret, Intermediate Egret, Little Egret, Western Reef-Heron, Cattle Egret, Indian Pond-Heron, Striated Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Black KiteBrahminy Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Barn Owl, White-throated Kingfisher, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Barbet, Indian Golden Oriole, Wire-tailed Swallow and others.</p>
<p class="title">A group of birders carried out a survey on pelagic birds and spotted as many as 43 species of pelagic birds off the Mangaluru coast.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The group recorded White-cheeked tern for the first time on the Karnataka coast and Persian Shearwater was sighted after a decade, informed bird enthusiast Shivashankar.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"White-cheeked tern is a fantastic pelagic with lots of action. A Persian Shearwater, Long-tailed Skuas, and many White-cheeked terns stole the show, along with roving schools of a smallish Tuna and a huge Marlin jumping out of the water,” said Shivashankar, who is working as a software engineer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A total of 35 birders had participated in the survey covering Bunder, Old Port, Tannirbavi and surrounding areas.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Shivashankar told <em><span class="italic">DH</span></em> that the Tuna schools had forced other smaller fish to the surface, which in turn attracted many Common, White-cheeked, Lesser Crested Terns and the Shearwater.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Many Skuas also enjoyed this as they had many Terns to harass,” he said with a smile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We have been doing this survey as part of our hobby and many MSc/PhD students had attended it as part of their curriculum," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They usually conduct such surveys with the fisheries department of Mangaluru. The previous survey was conducted in March 2021.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Incidentally, Shivashankar, along with Dr K Prabhakar Achar, a biologist (who had also served as a research associate at IISc, Bengaluru), had published a bilingual volume on the avifauna of coastal and hinterland Karnataka, titled 'Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka', a few years ago.</p>.<p><strong>Variety of birds</strong></p>.<p>Some of the species of pelagic birds spotted include White-cheeked tern, White-breasted waterhen, Pomarine Jaeger, Parasitic Jaeger, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Bridled tern, Gull-billed tern, Caspian tern, Common tern, Great Crested tern, Sandwich tern, Little Cormorant, Indian Cormorant, Gray Heron, Great Egret, Intermediate Egret, Little Egret, Western Reef-Heron, Cattle Egret, Indian Pond-Heron, Striated Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Black KiteBrahminy Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Barn Owl, White-throated Kingfisher, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Barbet, Indian Golden Oriole, Wire-tailed Swallow and others.</p>