Birders set for West Bengal’s 1st summer survey this weekend

KOLKATA: City-based Bird Watchers’ Society will conduct a state-wide survey during the Poila Baisakh weekend to record the first ever summer bird sightings in Bengal. Till now, surveys happened primarily in winter, in the first weekend of January, to collect data on migratory birds.

“From this year, we will attempt season-specific studies of birds in the state. The enthusiasm we witnessed during the Great Backyard Bird Count in the last week of February has prompted us to carry the initiative forward. The GBBC recorded birds sighted during spring. In Bengal, over 489 species were recorded, the highest in the country. We have now decided to utilise the Poila Baisakh holiday to do a summer count. If it goes well, we will do another after monsoon, and just before Durga Puja, to collect data on birds during autumn,” said BWS secretary Sujan Chatterjee.
Santanu Manna, the state coordinator for GBBC, said Bengal’s healthy bird count in spring needed to be followed up during the rest of the year to get an idea about the state’s bird population and health of various habitats in the state.
Birds across various known birding hot spots are annually recorded on the second Saturday of January. This data collected over several years offers an insight into the health of habitats, indicating the need for further study and analysis of a habitat that has degraded and help chalk out strategies to take corrective measures.
“This is also an effort to encourage people to step out and see birds. The objective is therefore two-fold — data collection and promotion of birding that connects us to nature and helps appreciate birds that are all around us but are generally overlooked,” said Chatterjee.
BWS will ask volunteers to eBird, the digital diary in an app developed by Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology that has evolved into the world’s largest biodiversity-related science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by eBirders around the world and an average participation growth rate of approximately 20% year over year. “There is just a 15-minute checklist or the sighting of a bird for 15 minutes for it to be recorded in the app,” said Chatterjee.
While birding culture has caught on in Kolkata in a big way over the past decade, BWS wants to take a step forward to also record birds to create a data inventory. On April 2, teams from BWS recorded bird songs at 25 locations across the state at daybreak and celebrated Bengal’s first Dawn Chorus Day. This will also be an annual endeavour with bird chorus being digitally recorded and documented for comparative analysis later.