With scorching heat, birds turn towards trees that are natural juice centres

Aurangabad, April 15:

People turn to juice centres and cool water to get away from the scorching heat. Surprisingly, many birds also start exploring various trees to find flowers that are packed with mineral-rich water and honey in the summer season to find relief from the heat.

Giving more information, ornithologist Dr Kishor Pathak said that Bombax (Katesavar), Lenten tree (Pangara), bastard teak (Palash), Bombax ceiba (Sonsavar), Sterculia colorata (Kaushi) which have bright and attractive flowers on summer days provide juice and nutrients to the birds in the summer heat. The honey in the flowers of these plants is rich in glucose and protein. Therefore, birds do not suffer from sunstroke after consuming this honey. Since we have deciduous trees, there is a lot of leaf shedding in summer. So these days the number of insects and bugs is also very low. The birds also have to do a lot of research for water. Due to the scarcity of food and often the energy that cannot be obtained just by drinking water, the flowers of these trees provide great support to the birds in summer. Apart from small birds like Indian white-eye, Sunbird, Ashy Prinia, Tailorbird, Sparrow, black drongo, golden oriole, nightingale, Great Tit Balguli, all kinds of Myna, Shikra, white-eyed eagle is also seen sitting on these trees and drinking honey, Pathak said.

These trees, which protect birds from summer sunstroke, are negligible in the city. These trees are in full blossom summer. Birds, bees, butterflies, and many other insects feed on these trees. These plants are used to make natural dyes and all these plants have medicinal properties. Therefore, it is now necessary to plant these trees even in urban areas, Pathak said.