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Showing posts from August, 2013

Internship Opportunity for Raptor Migration Study in Nepal

Raptors are highly mobile predatory birds; large numbers migrate from their breeding ground to the wintering areas in autumn and vice versa in spring. Monitoring of regional populations from the migration corridor is a very effective method to assess population trends for a number of migratory species. In Nepal two raptor migration traditional corridor are recognized as a globally significant sites from there >30 species of migratory raptors (majority are Steppe Eagles Aquila nipalensis nipalensis ) migrate east to west following the Himalayan Mountains. Although there are handfuls of partial counts since 1970s we started long term raptor migration study in Nepal since 2011.       This year we aim to provide internship opportunity for the young biologist who have keen interest on raptor biology. Raptor migration internship provides hands-on training, work, and field experiences for individuals committed to careers in raptor biology and conservation.   Interns train in re

New articles on Raptor Research in Nepal

I am pleased to inform you about the two new articles that were recently published in BirdingAsia (19). One article is related to discovery of Indian vulture Gyps indicus in Nepal and second is about the Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis and other raptor migration in Nepal and India. Both the articles are available for free download. Please visit the link below if you wish to read them. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ y2hb7kh0kmcujf8/Steppe-Eagle. pdf     https://www.dropbox.com/s/ pdrwwnbxp75pvwr/Indian- Vulture.pdf

Black-winged Kite in Kathmandu ---- record after 20 years back

See the following paragraph from the species account of National red data book of Nepal The first Nepal record of the species was in the 19th century (Hodgson 1837) when specimens were collected from the Kathmandu Valley in May, June and July (year unknown) and the terai (locality and date unknown) (Hodgson 1829). Fleming et al. (1976) found it occasionally on the Chapagaon road in the Valley in summer. Inskipp and Inskipp (1991) reported it was regularly seen in the Valley in summer at about 1370 m. However Mallalieu (2008) noted there were no records from the Valley between 2004 and 2006. Today when I was traveling through the micro van in Koteshwor (near to international airport) suddenly I saw one bird which was indeed Black-winged Kite my first record in Kathmandu. It was very exciting movement for me and just thinking about this event throughout my way to office. When we look through the NRDB species account (given above --which is in the final stage of preparation