Rahul Rohitashwa & DN Choudhary

India is home to rich and stunning and avian diversity. It is home to not only endemic birds but also every year large flocks of migratory birds that fly thousands of kilometres across the mountains of Central Europe, Northern Asia and Africa come here after marathon flights across continents to spend their winter vacation from October to the end of March.

The subject of migration is one of the most exciting as well as enthralling branches of ornithology. Consequently, many speculations have been made regarding bird migration and new knowledge is being generated continuously about this phenomenon. 

In India, a huge influx of migratory birds occurs every year along the length and breadth of the country starting from the month of October to the end of March. The birds which dominate the migration map of the sub-continent include White stork, Pintail duck, Garganey, Eurasian wigeon, Gadwall, Common coot, Red-crested pochard, Common pochard, Marsh sandpiper, Common redstart, Booted eagle, Steppe eagle, Marsh harrier, Forest wagtail and Rosy Pastor.

Each year millions of migratory birds start entering India from three flyways or flight paths — the Central Asian flyway, East Asian flyway and East Asian-Australasian flyway. Research has shown that every year birds from almost 29 countries take flight to India due to harsh cold and non-availability of food and shelter in their parent countries. India attracts a large number of winter visitors, some of which are also passage migrants. The winter visitors originate mostly in northern and central Asia and migrate directly across the Himalayas to winter in the sub-continent. A number of pelagic and coastal passage migrants and wintering species also travel by oceanic or coastal routes…read more on NOPR