Heron colony adds to the beauty of RU campus

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RU Correspondent | Published: September 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

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RAJSHAHI UNIVERSITY, Sept 3: The natural beauty of Rajshahi University (RU) attracts everybody, who visit the campus.
The campus covered with green leaves, flowers and trees, is popularly known as Evergreen Mothihar (Motihar Sabuz). Another natural attraction of RU campus is heron colony at the western part of the university.
There are several species of herons including black-crowned night herons, night herons, cattle egrets and others have made the woods their home.
"Everyone here likes these birds. Outsiders do not bother them either," Bird sanctuary in a university is a pleasant academic environment.
The heronry is located at the Taposhi Rabeya Hall, adjacent to the Begum Khaleda Zia Hall, both being women's halls. There are about 40 trees, each about 30-35 ft high, inside the walled territory of the halls. The birds made their nests on these trees.
As per zoology, heronry refers to a nesting congregation of aquatic birds belonging to the family Ardeidae which comprises herons and egrets.  Heronries may be composed of a single or mixed species of water birds, which have significant importance not only to ornithologists, biologists and bird watchers, but also to amateur photographers, reporters and tourists.
Sources said that earlier eminent bird expert Prof. Enam Al-Haque identified the heronry in 2003.  Later, to protect these birds the university authority had declared the site as "heron colony" in 2007 after appeal from Teresa Sarker, a former student of zoology department.
Not just the herons, but the trees house other birds like Pankouris (little cormorants), Shaliks (Indian mynas) and parrots as well. Mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni), mango (Magnifera indica), Babla (Acacia sp.) and coconut (Cocos nucifera) constitute the predominant trees of the heronry. Almost 90% of the birds reside on mahogany trees.
Dr. Selina Parvin, a bird expert, also teacher of zoology department said the heronry did not exist even before 2008, though a number of water birds were found foraging by the ponds and ditches present at the RU campus. So the age of the heronry appears to be a little bit more than a year. A small colony of four pairs of adult great/large cormorants, night herons with five fledges, and little egrets was established first, which started to evolve as heronry in early 2009.
Gradually the population of the colony, especially the night herons and the cormorants, has increased since then.
The number of nests of each species and the number of nest per tree have not been confirmed yet, but from the number of adults it is estimated that at least there are 40 nests of the cormorants and 25-27 nests of the night herons.
The major nesting species of the heronry is the night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) which live in association with the great cormorant, the pond heron and the little egret.
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