WELL-KNOWN naturalist M. Krishnan on the city's bird life in 1953, said, "From a varied knowledge of the countryside, I can say that parts of Madras are quite as bird-filled as the country can be, even today. Adyar is still an ornithologist's paradise... but what I should stress is the fact that the part of Mylapore I live in was not less plentifully favoured with birds."

Whether Adyar can still be called an ornithologist's paradise' is now debatable, but that Mylapore is plentifully favoured with birds is certainly doubtful.

Birdwatchers at the Adyar estuary report that, other than egrets, pond herons and night herons that are seen throughout the year, many of the earlier common wetland birds - waders, grey herons, and flamingoes - are only seen in the winter months from October-end to February, and in dwindling numbers. As for woodland birds in Chennai, there has been a drastic reduction - of the common loten's sunbird, purple sunbird, iora, forest wagtail and blue tailed bee-eater. Winter visitors like the paradise flycatcher and blue throated flycatcher that were seen frequently about 30 years ago, now appear rarely only in well-wooded areas like the Simpson Estate or the Theosophical Society (TS) gardens.

While Krishnan, at that point, felt that `birds with their wonderful powers of adaptation and air borne freedom are less immediately affected by colonisation than terrestrial fauna,' V. Gurusami, an avid naturalist and birdwatcher who has been observing avian species closely over the past 45 years, says, "That advantage is not of much use now, when survival hinges on availability of habitat. Birds like the pied bushchat and Indian robin, common weaver bird, streaked fantailed warbler frequently seen around 20 years ago in North Madras on open grounds with some vegetation, paddy fields and a water source nearby, have totally disappeared."

Even in the early 1950s, it was recorded that the disappearance of extensive woodland (provided by contiguous tree-stocked compounds) meadows and inundated fields had depleted populations of common birds like the spotted doves, ioras, magpie robins, fantail flycatchers, the Brahminy mynah, hoopoes, king crows and the grey shrike. Other birds — orioles and bulbuls, and bee-eaters and rollers - were in the last stages of departure.

T. Murugavel, founder, the Trust for Environment Monitoring and Action Initiating (TEMAI), who has been engaged in a recorded bird study at the TS gardens in Adyar for the past three years, says, "The TS gardens could well be one of the last refuges for many birds in Chennai, may be due to the interesting mix of exotic and indigenous plant species. The so-called development activities are the bane of birdlife in the city, like the MRTS construction activity and the dumping of rubbish that is spoiling the Pallikaranai marshes. Scrubland birds like munias, larks and pipits are nowhere to be seen. The dwindling number of the common house sparrow is also a cause for concern, though they're still found in market areas where there is a lot of grain spillage.

"Even till about 10 years ago, I've observed reasonably abundant numbers of wetland birds like the oyster catcher, some plover varieties, bitterns, many duck varieties and avocets during the migratory season at the Estuary. Not any more. But the number of blue rock pigeons is on the rise because of the proliferation of high rise. And fortunately, areas like the Guindy National Park, IIT, The School (KFI), the Madras Christian College campus and the Raj Bhavan gardens continue to be havens for birdlife in Chennai."

K.V. Sudhakar, former secretary, Madras Naturalist's Society, says, "In the heart of the city, amidst the bustle of the typical residential localities - even in T. Nagar in the early 1970s - I've often heard the call of lapwings as they flew overhead and seen night herons nesting in the many palm trees. Urbanisation has progressively led to a decline in the number of bird species that frequent the city. Till about the early 1980s, the open maidan area on the south bank of the Adyar estuary (where MRC Nagar is now located) was a popular site of many ground-nesting birds like curlews, lapwings and finch larks. The Adyar Estuary itself - a popular spot of more than 200 migratory and resident birds - is besieged by constant disturbances. But we are fortunate that we continue to have beautiful protected woodlands like the TS and the Guindy National Park (only wish it'd be more accessible to Nature and wildlife enthusiasts). Also popular is the Manali jheel with its lily trotters (their numbers are dwindling now), and the well protected heronry in the Sembium gardens."

The woodland birds that are commonly seen in certain green pockets are garden birds like tailor birds, coppersmiths, golden-backed woodpeckers, spotted owlets and koels, common mynah, red-vented bulbul, purple-rumped sunbird and white-headed babblers, white-breasted kingfisher, and rose-ringed parakeet. The earlier recorded variety in the birds of our diurnal sky - the ubiquitous pariah kite, the Brahminy kites, and eagles scavenger vultures, hawks, even the occasional peregrine - is not seen now. Gurusami confirms, "The most commonly seen raptor is the common kite. Scavenger birds like vultures are now rarely seen in the city skies. Could residual drugs - like diclofenac administered for disease control in cattle remains — have caused their drastic decline, as suggested by recent findings of American scientists?"

While Krishnan wrote of the transformation of the crow from the `rude, uncouth, apprehensive bird' of his boyhood that sidled to the tap for a drink, graduating to `sitting on top of the bucket with an easy, sophisticated self-assurance and an amused tolerant glint in its eye', Gurusami confirms, "The winner hands down is definitely the common crow, which is able to thrive because of its wide ranging food tastes, and capacity to survive under the most difficult conditions. Also, it has no active predator."