Four surveys ahead, a busy week for birders

NEW DELHI: Starting Friday, it will be a busy week ahead for birders and avian enthusiasts in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), with the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) along with an educational campus count to be held simultaneously from February 18-21, and the annual Big Bird Day (BBD) on February 20. Another bird census will also be carried out at Delhi’s seven biodiversity parks from February 23-26.

While the GBBC and the campus count invite participants to monitor birds in and around their homes and educational institutes, Big Bird Day will see 25 teams led by experienced birders set out across birding hot spots across the National Capital Region -including Sultanpur, Mangar Bani, Basai, Asola Bhatti and the Yamuna floodplains -- to record avian species.

The bird census at biodiversity parks is planned to become an annual event to assess the changes in the number of overall bird species each year.

“This is the first time that Delhi’s biodiversity parks will have a coordinated census spread over nearly a week, where experts will set out from 7.30am to 9.30am and record all bird species spotted there. Like we did recently with a butterfly census, this will become an annual event and will be held around the same time each year, allowing changes in the bird count to be analysed across each biodiversity park,” said Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist in-charge at the Yamuna Biodiversity Park in north Delhi.

In addition to the Yamuna Biodiversity Park, the census will cover the Aravalli, Neela Hauz, Tilpath Valley, Kamla Nehru Ridge, Tughlakabad and Kalindi biodiversity parks.

GBBC is a global event in which birdwatchers across the world look for avian species for four days in February each year.

The event is held to study the bird diversity in different neighbourhoods and cities around the world. In India, GBBC is coordinated by Bird Count India – an umbrella group of a large number of birding, nature and conservation organisations--and has been held since 2013 in the country.

Along with GBBC, campuses will simultaneously take part in a sister event, the Campus Bird Count, to identify avian species that make their home in educational campuses and institutes.

Last year, over 2,900 birders from India participated in the GBBC and uploaded over 31,355 entries, containing a total of 965 species.

Those wishing to take part in the GBBC can head to www.birdcount.in and list all the avian species they come across over a period of 15 minutes or more, at any time of the day, before uploading their findings on the eBird (www.ebird.org/india) platform.

The Big Bird Day (BBD) is an annual winter count generally held in January or February to record both resident and migratory species present across Delhi’s wetlands and bird hot spots, including the seven biodiversity parks in the Capital.

Last year, BBD recorded 244 different species across NCR on February 21. In 2020, 253 different species were recorded on January 12.

“We expect over twenty-five teams to venture out this year. As has been the case over the last two years, we are doing small groups due to Covid-19 and the participants have been asked to remain masked up. Anyone can take part in the count and one simply has to upload his or her list on the eBird portal,” said Birder Nikhil Devasar.

This is the first time that biodiversity parks will have a coordinated census spread over nearly a week. FAIYAZ KHUDSAR, Scientistin-charge,Yamuna biodiversity park