“People living in neighborhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees are less
likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress, according to research
by academics at the University of Exeter, the British Trust for Ornithology
and the University of Queensland”.
Santanab Majumder
Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Bird watcher and Photographer
Without going into the scientific details, we can easily understand the essence of
the above sentence, because we feel it. A robin’s melody is far better than a harsh
alarm call. Birds with their wings inspired human being through the ages, from
the tiny fairy birds to mighty eagles; they are just a stunning creation of nature.
Birds have their presence in every continent, some of them are resident and
many others migrate from places to places depending on the weather. Like all
the other places, our home, Jalpaiguri, a tiny portion in the northern part of West
Bengal, India, is blessed with the presence of our winged friends. Although civili-
zation is taking away their home, their food, their future, day by day, but till date
they are there. North Bengal is very rich in biodiversity due to its location. Situ-
ated in the laps of Eastern Himalayas it has a diverse geo climatic region. From
the high altitude alpine forest to evergreen forest to moist grassland there are
different habitat s for the avian beauties. Nearly 400 species of the birds (local
and migratory) can be seen there. Winter to spring is the best time to watch
them, but in the rains local birds breed and they are just stunning in their breed-
ing plumage. Although it is better to leave them alone during the nesting time.
The Darjeeling Himalaya has two vital forest namely Singalila national park and
Neoara valley national park which are famous for mountain birds. Buntings,
Thrush, Redstarts, Tits, warblers, Himalayan cutia ,Mesia, broadbills, flycatchers,
Tesia, Trogons, are amongst the star performers. Mahananda wild life sanctuary
is another hot spot in the Darjeeling districts. It is one of the last habitats for the
famous Rufous necked hornbill (IUCN-Vulnerable). Coming down to the