Bird lovers in the city yesterday welcomed varieties of migratory waterfowl through a festival at the Ceramic Lake inMirpur.

In the morning, when the sun was not quite hot yet, a few hundred people of all ages, including children accompanied by their mothers, gathered at the lakeside to watch the migratory birds.

Sharifuddin Ahmed, a retired government employee, brought his granddaughter Trisha to.watch the birds.

"The festival does not have any age-limit, so both of us arc enjoying it," Sharifuddin said. “I do not know the names of thebirds but that docs not hold us from enjoying the way they are flying and landing."

Five-year-old Pritha came to the festival with her mother. She would later join an art competition arranged by the organisers. “This is obviously an uncommon but wonderful programme. I have brought my daughter so that she grows up with a love for nature,” said Rashida Begum, mother of Pritha.

The Bangladesh Nature Conservation Committee (NCC) organised the festival. Green campaigner Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury inaugurated the festival by releasing house pigeons.

Describing the event as a “social festival”, Prof Choudhury said the human-bird relationship should be friendlier.

“Birds are not our guests. They are our darling,” he said in his inaugural speech. “We should adopt more environment-friendly activities,” he added, asking all to plant bird-friendly fruit trees.

Eight species of migratory and resident waterfowl have landed on the lake this year, the organisers said. There are 162 species of them in Bangladesh--46 of them resident and the rest migratory, he said.

The NCC members said the flock in the Ceramic Lake includes pin tail, lesser whistling till, ruddy shellduck, green winged till, comb duck, little egret, bittern and pond heron.

“As the adjoining areas are not safe because of random hunting of the migratory birds, they have been flying back to the Ceramic Lake for the last few years,” said one of the organisers.

The Mirpur festival also included photography exhibition, art competition for children, cultural programmes and discussion-all about birds and nature.

The Civic Committee for Resisting Bird-flu in Bangladesh ran its campaign at the festival to raise awareness among people about not killing the migratory birds which might cause an outbreak of bird flu as these birds may carry the bird flu virus.