As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday 22 April 2016

As Bidar sizzles, two youths create oases for birds


They have installed pots of grain and water in house gardens that attract scaly-breasted munias, sparrows and other birds

Scaly-breasted munias and other birds 
flock to a garden feeder in Bidar.
In the withering heat of northeast Karnataka’s Deccan plateau, birds are discovering oases of food and water created by two young members of the Bidar Photographic Society. The two have installed pots full of grain and water in house gardens, attracting scaly-breasted munias, sparrows and other birds.

Vangapalli Vinayak, a post-graduate student of commerce at Karnataka College read media reports that some youths were hanging empty nests and feeders in front of their houses to help birds. He then came up with a simple contraption — with the help of metal workers in the old city, he produced a vertical tripod that can hold three pots in less than one square foot.

They were filled with finger millet, bought in bulk, as it can be stored without refrigeration. This was the grain of choice also because an old shopkeeper told him that birds like it a lot. The three tripods and some boxes were placed in an empty housing plot, where he had planted a flower garden.

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