page_title: Kokrebellur
section_title: Fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Kokrebellur / Fauna
caption_attribution_description: Though I've been among Parakeets since my childhood, I have never quite seen anything like this before - These are a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets - The one on top is the mother, and it's feeding the younger one. Considering the young one had fully grown wings, and it was able to fly around comfortably. Scientific name Psittacula krameri; also known as Rose-ringed Parakeet I over-shot Kokrebellur village, by mistake, continued down the road. Got this on the way back to the village.
context_page_description: Kokkarebellur, usually shortened by the colloquial usage to Kokrebellur is a village in Maddur taluk of Mandya district of Karnataka, India. The village is named after the painted stork, which is called "kokkare" in the native Kannada language. This bird nests here in large numbers every year. The village is situated near Maddur between the cities of Mysore and Bangalore. Apart from painted storks, spot-billed pelicans are also found here in large numbers. Both are classified to be near threatened in the IUCN Red List. The village is one of the 21 breeding sites of those birds in India.
  The uniqueness of Kokkarebellur lies in the long-established bond between the spot-billed pelicans and the villagers who have adopted this bird as their local heritage, since they consider the birds as harbingers of good luck and prosperity to the village. The commercial benefits derived by the villagers from these birds include the phosphorus- and potassium-rich manure obtained from the bird droppings. Over the years, the story of this unique relationship between the villagers and the migratory birds has attracted many tourists to the village.
context_section_description: Apart from the pelicans, the other birds found nestling and breeding in the village trees are the painted stork (Ibis leucocephalus), little cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger), black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa), grey heron (Ardea cinerea), black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and Indian pond heron (Ardeola grayii).
  
  Birds are seen nesting in clusters of 15 to 20 pairs per tree and are thought to use the same tree each year. They arrive after monsoon rains ends in September when the birds create their nests, lay eggs from October to November, thereafter fledge around for three months after laying of eggs, till March and tirelessly feed their hatchlings through the summer season. As summer peaks in May, they re-migrate, year after year, except when they sense drought conditions in their colonial habitat. Village women turning sentimental about the birds returning to their homeland say: 
  For us, these birds are like a daughter coming home for delivery....
  The main species that nest in Kokkarebellur – the spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus phillipensis) and painted stork (Ibis leucocephalus) are given the conservation status of "near threatened category" in the IUCN Red List of 2008.
  The birds have distinctly different large anatomical dimensions and colours but both are very active in feeding and protecting their hatchlings. While the painted stork is large in size, the pelican is half this size. Storks have snow-white plumage, lay 2-5 white dotted eggs and have a yellow tapering bill. The pelicans have grey and grayish white plumage, short stout legs, large webbed feet, flat and enormous bill with an elastic bag of purple skin hanging below the throat (that facilitates to collect fish from water surfaces), with length or height in the range of 127–140 centimetres (50–55 in) with tufted crown at the back of the head and lay a maximum of three chalk white eggs at a time.
  In addition to above birds, there are nearly 250 birds recorded around this area over years.
caption: Ring necked parakeets seen in Kokkrebellur
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