Migratory birds in Bangladesh- Banglapedia

Migratory bird Birds that visit the Bangladesh territory periodically, specially in winter. Although migration occurs among other animals like certain insects, fishes, reptiles and mammals, in no other group is it so extensive and prevalent as it is among birds. Birds may be classified according to their migratory status in a given area. Four major groups are recognized: 1. permanent residents; 2. summer residents or summer visitors; 3. winter residents or winter visitors; and 4. transient visitants or passage migrants. Transient visitants include all the species that pass through a locality, usually twice a year: once in the spring, on their way to their breeding grounds, and again in the fall, on their way to their wintering grounds. Migratory behaviour occurs among many different groups of land and water birds. Migration occurs at specific times of the day. Birds that depend on vegetational cover and that are weak fliers are nocturnal migrants; eg, cuckoos, thrushes, wrens, etc. Birds that are fast fliers, that live in the open, or that capture their food on the wing migrate primarily by day; eg, hawks, swallows, shrikes, etc. Some large birds migrate by both day and night; eg, loons, geese, and many waders.

Most birds that migrate to Bangladesh come from the mountainous northern parts of the subcontinent, namely the Himalayas and beyond. Some species come from different parts of Europe and as Far East as Siberia. So all these migratory birds are a part of the massive southward migration of birds from Eurasia to South, Southeast and East Asia. Only a handful of species makes a northward migration to and through Bangladesh. There are certain species that land in Bangladesh and stay for a day or two enroute to destinations further South or Southeast. These are the species in transit. There are still a few species that make a stopover in Bangladesh on passage either during their southern (autumn) or northern (spring) migration and they may spend a longer time than those on transit. There are even species that visit Bangladesh only on passage either during autumn or spring. Migration from north to south or vice versa is referred to as latitudinal or transboundary migration and from an upper elevation to a lower elevation of a mountain is altitudinal migration. Some birds do make east-west migration as well. But such a species possibly does not occur in Bangladesh. Movements within a country or small region are known as local migration.

It is known that there are more than 600 species of breeding birds in Eurasia that are migratory either to South and Southeast Asia or to Africa. Bangladesh receives more than one-third of these birds. There are only a handful of migrants from Siberia but most visit Bangladesh from the Himalayas and northern Asia. [Ali Reza Khan]

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[beso7000]

WAW WHAT THAT ?

[gogomaverick]

where is it? I used to enjoy the bird-watching at JU, Savar, Dhaka.