Simple Guy With The LOVE For Philately

A beautiful registered Bird Cover from Dr. Biju. Thanks Dr for this very beautiful bird cover and I love it a lot... Sadly, there's a red pen mark on the ms but I guess this actually shows that the cover has truly traveled.

Information:

India Post issue a new set of stamps to commemorate "Endangered Birds of India"on 5 October 2006, the Endangered Birds of India issue consists of four commemorative postage stamps depicting the following birds:

Lesser Florican

The Lesser Florican (Sypheotides indica) is a large bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus Sypheotides. It breeds in Pakistan, and is a rare summer visitor in Nepal. It has a very small, declining population, primarily a result of loss and degradation of its grassland habitat. In their breeding display, the male jumps into the air above the grass level.

The Manipur Bush Quail (Perdicula manipurensis) is a species of quail found in India, inhabiting damp grassland, particularly stands of tall grass, in West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya. It was collected and described by Allan Octavian Hume on an ornithological expedition to Manipur in 1881.

P. manipurensis is listed as Vulnerable in IUCN's Red List as its habitat is small, fragmented, and rapidly shrinking. There was no confirmed sighting of the bird from 1932 until June 2006, when Anwaruddin Choudhury reported spotting the quail in Assam. BBC News quoted the conservation director of the Wildlife Trust of India, Rahul Kaul, as saying, "This creature has almost literally returned from the dead."

The Greater Adjutant, Leptoptilos dubius is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It formerly bred in southern Asia from Pakistan and India, Sri Lanka east to Borneo, but is now restricted to two separate small breeding populations; in Assam and Cambodia. In winter, this species migrates south to Vietnam, Thailand and Burma.

The Greater Adjutant is a huge bird, typically 145-150 cm (57-60 in) tall with a 250 cm (99 in) wingspan. There are no records of the weight of wild birds, but they may be the heaviest species of stork. Its upper body and wings are black, but the belly and undertail are off-white or pale grey. The pink head and neck are bare like those of a vulture. The yellow bill is long and thick. Juveniles are a duller version of the adult.

Loss of nesting habitat and feeding sites through drainage, pollutions and disturbance, together with hunting and egg collection has caused a massive decline in the population of this species. The current population is estimated at less than 1,000 individuals. The Greater Adjutant is evaluated as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/