MYSORE: A biodiversity hotspot, the Karanji Lake Nature Park in Mysore has emerged as a paradise for birds and thus joins the league of the world-famous Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary as a popular nestling and roosting site in the region.

If naturalists and amateur ornithologists are to be believed, there are over 100 resident species of birds in the Karanji Lake at any point of time. The water body now is teeming with birds of different plumes.

Rajkumar, an avid bird watcher who has been tracking the winged beauties in Bandipur as also in different lakes in the region, told The Hindu that the Karanji Lake has emerged as an ideal spot for roosting and breeding and almost 40 per cent of the birds there are migratory.

While Ranganathittu plays host to winged beauties from early summer to the onset of winter, the number of species is low and only the white ibis, night heron, stone plover, cormorants and kingfishers, to name a few birds, come to roost in the riverine islands. But the Karanji Lake plays host to both the migrant and the resident species, and naturalists attribute this to the availability of prey in the lake.