For four days every February, beginners and experienced birdwatchers across the world join in a massive global initiative to document bird life in their respective favourite places. It is done to maintain a scientific database and help scientists understand and protect birds around the world in a better way.
Organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society in the U.S., Birds Canada, and eBird, a global online database of bird observations, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)-2023 was held between February 17 and 20.
The goal during this period was to spend as little as 15 minutes to notice, identify and count the birds in the surroundings. The exercise could be repeated in as many batches of 15 minutes each and the list, details and photos of the bird had to be uploaded to eBird.
Launched in 1998 in the U.S., the event went global in 2013 and Bird Count India, an informal group of nature and conservation organisations interested in documenting and monitoring India’s birds, coordinates the domestic event.
The Indian participation mostly comes from the southern region and Tamil Nadu has always been among the top to contribute to GBBC in a big way. Outreach efforts by local birders saw places such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Chengalpattu record the highest number of sightings in the previous years.
This year 425 birders from 35 districts submitted their lists and five birdwatchers from Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district stamped the fourth spot by observing 178 species of birds. Coimbatore recorded 234 followed by Salem at 184 and the Nilgiris 182.
“We went into serious exploration in different locations such as the Rajapalayam Water Reservoir, Sappaniparambu, Ayyanar falls, New bus stand lake, Puliyankulam, Ramco Institute of Technology, Kadamankulam, Kondaneri lake, Pachaimadam, Karungulam, Sengulam, Valaikulam and that enabled Virudhunagar scale its position,” said Sharan Venkatesh, president Rhopalocera and Odonata Association of Rajapalayam.
Orange headed ground thrush.
Birds collectively seen by Vishnu Sankar, Sharan, Vivek, Vinoth. P and Ram Kumar include Jerdons nightjar, Malabar barbet, Orange-headed ground thrush, House Martin, Crimson backed sunbird, black hooded oriole, Rosy Starling, yellow-footed green pigeon, Malabar parakeet, Watercock, Malabar trogon and Tickells leaf warbler among others.
Vishnu and Sharan also came second and fourth in Tamil Nadu for individually documenting 157and 152 species respectively. With respect to hotspots, Rajapalayam water reservoir came State third with 99 species observed in these 96 hours.
