CHENNAI: Spotted a bird on your window sill, in the park or by the backwaters on a long drive? It could be crucial information for bird conservation.
It’s that time of the year, when the binoculars, notepads and phones are out and bird watchers in the region are on high alert for the four-day annual bird counting. From January 14 to 17, the Tamil Birders’ Network (TBN) and Bird Count India (BCI) will jointly undertake the exercise of identifying bird species in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Birders will document bird species and count their numbers for at least 15 minutes each day and upload the observations on www. ebird. org/india. The participants are free to choose any site of their interest for the count. The site can be near a pond or a lake.
It can even be from their balcony or terrace. Of nearly 525 species recorded in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry region, 356 species were reported during the Pongal bird count in 2021. Last year, 340 birders from all over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry participated in the count. Most of the spottings were recorded from Coimbatore, Tirupur and Salem. Common myna was the most sighted resident bird appearing in 59.
7% of all the checklists, followed by the house crow (56. 7%) and rose-ringed parakeet (47. 2%). The most common migrant appearing in 28. 1% of the checklists was barn swallow followed by Blyth’s reed warbler (21. 2%) and blue-tailed bee-eater (19. 3%). TBN coordinator for Puducherry and Villupuram Surendhar Boobalan said various resource materials are available on how to prepare bird checklists on ebird. org, along with an online pictorial guide to some common birds of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, with an introduction to birds and birdwatching.
“The event is part of a worldwide effort to document birds around the globe and to make bird watching popular and scientific. Research shows that watching and admiring nature can make us feel better emotionally as well as contribute to our physical wellbeing.
The seasonality, occurrence and distribution of even common birds around us is hardly known. Hence, identifying, counting birds and reporting in citizen science platforms such as e-Bird India portal can help understand our birds better which can lead to their conservation,” said Surendhar. Pongal Bird Count, which began in 2015 with 115 participants attracted 180 participants in 2016, and grew to 340 in 2021. For more details visit https://birdcount. in/event/ pongal-bird-count-2022/.
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