Recap of the 2012-13 season: Part 3 – Species records
In this section we explore species-wise break-up of observations on MigrantWatch for 2012-13 and compare them with the previous season’s patterns. (Note that the migration “season” is taken to begin on 1 July of one year and end on 30 June the next year.)
Top 20 species for 2012-13
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Species
Records in 2012-13
Common Sandpiper
368
Grey Wagtail
298
White Wagtail
267
Pied Cuckoo
267
Barn Swallow
254
Rosy Starling
245
Wood Sandpiper
236
Blyth’s Reed-warbler
219
Western Yellow Wagtail
206
Greenish Warbler
203
Green Sandpiper
187
Western Marsh Harrier
173
Northern Shoveler
157
Northern Pintail
138
Hume’s Leaf-warbler
132
Whiskered Tern
128
Garganey
127
Brown Shrike
126
Western Black-tailed Godwit
120
Common Greenshank
119
Boldface indicates species that also figured among the top 20 during the previous season (see table below)
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Species
Records in 2011-12
Rosy Starling
239
Pied Cuckoo
170
Blyth’s Reed-warbler
122
Common Sandpiper
119
Barn Swallow
117
Greenish Warbler
112
Wood Sandpiper
95
Ashy Drongo
93
Grey Wagtail
90
Western Yellow Wagtail
85
White Wagtail
79
Western Marsh Harrier
77
Common Kestrel
75
Booted Warbler
75
Green Sandpiper
71
Northern Shoveler
69
Brown Shrike
66
Eurasian Golden Oriole
59
Common Redshank
56
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
55
Zone-wise top 5 species during 2012-13
The top 5 species were considered separately for each zone (see table below). A look at this list indicates that the most-observed species vary appreciably according to zone. As there are very few sightings from the Northeast and the Islands, these zones are excluded from comparison.
North |
Northwest |
Central |
South |
White Wagtail |
Rosy Starling |
Common Sandpiper |
Barn Swallow |
Grey Wagtail |
Common Sandpiper |
Pied Cuckoo |
Common Sandpiper |
Hume’s Leaf-warbler |
Greater Flamingo |
Western Yellow Wagtail |
Wood Sandpiper |
Greenish Warbler |
Western Black-tailed Godwit |
Grey Wagtail |
Blyth’s Reed-warbler |
Grey-headed C. Flycatcher |
Northern Shoveler |
White Wagtail |
Brown Shrike |
Half of all observations logged by MigrantWatchers in 2012-13 belong to 24 of the 265 species tracked by MigrantWatch. Interestingly, this number has remained nearly constant across the past five seasons (range 19-24). This suggests that there are some species that are either more popular, or are more abundant, or are easier to detect than other species.
Next in the series: Sighting data