Interested in honing your bird-watching skills and adding a scientific touch to your hobby of observing the winged species?
The Kerala Forest Department and the Cochin Natural History Society (CNHS) are jointly offering a training programme for the bird enthusiasts for correctly identifying in wetland and common birds seen in Kerala. The participants will be trained in scientifically identifying the birds and to monitor them on a regular basis. They will also be encouraged to record the bird sightings in a scientific manner, said the organisers.
The programme comes as part of the Green Partnership programme of Social Forestry Division of Kerala Forest Department. The data would go a long way in involving people to gather scientific data on birds, they said.
The training programme will be held at Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary on January 3 at 10 a.m. For more details, contact 9446437410.
Under the Green Partnership Programme, the Forest department and the NGOs had been carrying out Asian Waterbird Count, Common Bird Monitoring Programme, pelagic bird surveys and heronry surveys. The bird data generated from the water bird counting is used to monitor the health of wetlands. The Society had been monitoring the wetlands of Ernakulam district for the last four years. The 2014 Common Bird Monitoring Programme succeeded in recording 280 bird species, the organisers said.