Bird count paints city in the pink of eco-health

Hyderabad has one of the highest bird species density in Telangana with 320 species, despite being a booming metropolis with shrinking green cover, according to a bird count survey.

In contrast, Vikarabad, Nalgonda and Khammam, which have fewer human habitations and higher forest cover, have a lower bird count.

The real-time bird count that can be used for birding has a caveat: “This is from birdlists uploaded to eBird-India by birdwatchers and so reflects a combination of diversity and birding activity.”

An element of bias in the bird count comes from the fact that the data is crowd-sourced. More vigilant the observers, higher the bird count. The Chilika Lake in Odisha, which can be expected to have a high bird count, thanks to the undisturbed ecosystem, has a lower bird count than Hyderabad.

Osmansagar and Icrisat campus on the outskirts of the city have more birds than Ameenpur lake which is considered by many as a bird watchers’ paradise.

Birla Mandir area or Naubat Pahad, which at one point of time was an open hunting ground for sandgrouse, partridges and peacocks, recorded a zero bird count, thanks to the rapid urbanisation of the area. Even Public Gardens, which at one time housed the civic zoo, has a low bird count.

“The bird count is an assessment of quality of bird life in the region. Using this data, which has been collected for years, we can understand the increase or decrease in the number of species for a region. It also helps us evaluate conservation plans for the area,” said Srikanth Bhamidipati, who has been part of the bird count study.

Not surprisingly, the Western ghats and the Himalaya ranges have the highest bird species density in the country.