3 colleges from State soar high in bird survey

Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Thrissur; Government Ayurveda College, Pariyaram; and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Wayanad, are among the nation’s top 10 colleges this year to document bird life as part of the recently concluded Campus Bird Count (CBC), an annual nationwide bird survey which aims to document bird diversity in government, educational and training institutions, research stations and corporate campuses.

Participating institutes – 157 this year – had to compile a list of birds seen in each birding session across their campuses during the Great Backyard Bird Count (an international citizen science project that collects information on bird species occurrences and numbers) between February 16 and February 19. With a contribution of 1,232 bird lists, the KAU tops all institutions in the country while the Government Ayurveda College, Wayanad, comes in seventh with 117 lists and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences comes ninth (107 lists).

“Thirty-two of us documented 127 bird species as part of the survey in the agricultural university campus,” said participant Sreekumar E.R., assistant professor at the KAU who also coordinated the event across the state.

While the KAU has been participating in the CBC ever since the inception of the survey in 2014, it was the first ever campus bird monitoring event for the ayurveda and veterinary colleges.

“Though we had noticed a few birds on our campus, this was the first time we were documenting birds so thoroughly,” said third-year veterinary student Afreed Muhammed N.V., who participated in the survey. Muhammed and four other birdwatchers counted 102 species from here.

In total, 72 participants from 16 institutes across Kerala participated in the event, recording 174 bird species. These include common birds like the kuyil or Asian koel and the less-seen ones like the colourful Indian pitta (kaavi pakshi).

It is important to quantify bird diversity on academic campuses for several reasons, according to Nameer P.O., head of the Centre for Wildlife Studies at KAU’s College of Forestry. Such campuses are often large, well-protected and house a diversity of habitats, he told The Hindu.

“Different campuses represent different bioregions, from wetter to drier, hotter to cooler, low land to high land. And documenting the biodiversity on campuses can create an important baseline for future research,” said Prof. Nameer.

Across India, more than 400 participants took part in the CBC this year and listed 463 bird species in total. The CBC is conducted by Bird Count India, which aims to document the distribution and numbers of Indian birds in partnership with national, regional and State-level organisations and groups.