Nature Notes

Rain Therapy, By Rani Iyer, ,
Red Sanders
Exploding Lakes
Set your clocks!
Shells on seashore
Water Hole guardian
Driftwood
Sunflower Math
Ankur - the sprout
The whistling schoolboy
At Sun rise
Trek to Pindhari Glacier

Suicidal Birds

JATINGA is a small village in Assam. One moonless night in 1905 some of the villagers were searching for a lost buffalo when suddenly birds of various species began to drop down on them.
The birds seemed to be attracted by the lighted torches the men were carrying.
On landing, the birds appeared to be dazed and made no attempt to escape capture.
The villagers were the first to witness the strange behaviour of the birds of Jatinga. But not the last. Birds continue to fly down suicidally there on some moonless and foggy nights in the months of September - October, wherever lights are showing.
Scientists who have studied the phenomenon say the birds become hypnotised on landing and that is why they make no attempt to escape.

The birds refuse all food offered to them and die (sometimes after several days) without coming out of the hypnotic state.
Curiously, three species of birds seem immune to the strange, unexplained madness that seizes the other birds. The three are the sparrow, the common myna and the red-vented bulbul.

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Last updated on :6/15/2015