The second edition of the Goa Bird Festival will be held from January 12 to 14 at Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Canacona.
The State Forest department is organising the event with the support of Goa Tourism, the Goa Bird Conservation Network (GBCN) and Birderpics.com, said Ajai Saxena, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. Oceanic bird tours would be on offer.
Goa is said to have over 440 species of birds out of over 1,200 in the country. Some of the birds are endemic to the region as the State offers a unique confluence of two diverse ecosystems — tropical forests and marine, said Mr. Saxena.
The festival will host some of the country’s top naturalists, photographers and artists as resource persons.
Bird walks are being planned with experts and guides in Cotigao and the adjoining Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary.
The oceanic birds tour will be on the Arabian Sea.
Vibhu Prakash, scientist, Bombay Natural History Society will deliver the keynote address on conservation of vultures.
Vibrant discussion
Some of the other lectures are: “Recording Bird Calls” by Pratap Singh; “Bird Calls and Songs” by Sharad Apte; “Science behind Superstitions” by Satish Pande and “Pelagic Birds of Western Coast and Birds of Western Ghats” by Shiv Shankar.
Rohan Chakraborty from Nagpur will conduct a session on “Drawing of Birds” while Karthikeyan from Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Karnataka, will hold a discussion on “Organising Nature Camps – the JLR experience.”
An origami workshop by Coralie D’ Lima from WWF, a talk on green humour by Rohan Chakraborty, guided walks by the Goa Bird Conservation Network and film shows on nature are also on the agenda.
A special edition of Indian Birds with articles on the birds of Goa will be released. The findings of the long-term bird survey and monitoring in Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, undertaken by the Forest Department and GBCN, will also be released.
