Guwahati, Feb. 16: Several students, research scholars and faculty members of Cotton College, Cotton College State University and Gauhati University spotted 43 different species of birds on the university campus and its surrounding areas during a campus bird count session, organised by Cotton University from February 12 to 15.

The session was conducted as part of the global programme, Great Backyard Bird Count.

House crows, Asian pied starlings, black kites, rose-ringed parakeets, common mainas, little cormorants, Asian palm swifts, feral pigeons, jungle mainas and eastern western cattle egrets are some of the species that were spotted during the session. Among them the house crow and Asian pied starling were the most common species and comprised 50 per cent of the total birds spotted.

Among the 42 species spotted, only one, the red-breasted parakeet was a near threatened one. These birds were spotted during 3,415 hours of observation and the participants covered a distance of 8.74km while doing so.

"We organised the campus bird count during which we spotted 42 different species of birds in Panbazar area. It was a very interesting session that encouraged the public to watch nature and observe whether the population of different species of birds are on a declining trend. This helps people put in their efforts to save the habitat of these birds. The students and faculty members had spotted 9,348 individual birds during the four-day campus bird count programme. There is possibility the same birds may have been counted twice as they fly around from one spot to another," said Narayan Sharma, assistant professor of the department of environmental biology and wildlife sciences of Cotton College State University.