Before winter has fully set in, the chars and pools that have surfaced in the Padma at Rajshahi are filling with migratory birds. They fly thousands of miles to Bangladesh to escape the cold and food shortages of distant lands. Prothom Alo photographer Hasan Mahmud photographed them on the chars.
Ruddy shelducks, red-crested pochards, snipes, sandpipers, plovers, gulls and many other species are flying in flocks over the chars. They feed now in the river, now on the mudflats, and at the slightest sound or movement the whole flock takes off together.
In one picture a flock of ruddy shelducks, also known locally as manikjor duck, comes in to land on a char. The birds usually live in pairs; in Bengali the male is called chokha and the female chokhi.
Other frames show a flock of sandpipers in flight, two birds facing each other on the mud, and a group of gulls floating on the Padma; gulls usually move in groups. Ducks of several species fly towards the char.
Red-crested pochards, also called ranga-jhunti duck, were seen on the Padma too. According to the photo story, migrant birds usually begin arriving in October and November and stay in Bangladesh until March and April.
For these months, river chars and wetlands are the birds' feeding and resting grounds. Not disturbing them while moving about or farming on the chars helps them survive.
Photo: Ehsan Ali Biswas / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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