Bird watchers, volunteers team up to develop Hyderabad Bird Atlas-OxBig News Network

Members surveying a region in Hyderabad to identify birds.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement

The exercise to develop Hyderabad Bird Atlas is underway with birdwatchers along with volunteers scanning different parts of the city to map avian fauna.The Atlas, a first of its kind for the city, is being developed to understand bird distribution in the city, monitor changes in their population, identify important bird areas and inform authorities about land use planning. Pune, Mysore and Coimbatore are some of the cities in India that have developed bird atlases.

The three-year project was rolled out on February 3, which will go on till February 23. It will be conducted in February (Winter) and July (Summer) to know birds which migrate in winters. Summer season helps to know resident birds.

Till now, 51 of 180 regions in Hyderabad were surveyed for birds.
| Photo Credit:
By Arrangement

Prior to the launch, the volunteers were trained in the basics of bird identification. A mock-survey was conducted at Nehru Zoological Park in the city at the beginning of the month.

“Following the training session, volunteers were divided into smaller groups consisting of two to five members and assigned to randomly selected survey regions across Hyderabad,” said Sriram Reddy, core member of Hyderabad Birding Pals.

In the city, 180 survey regions were identified for the study. As of now, 51 out of 180 regions were surveyed and 170 bird species were recorded. The 180 regions were selected covering different habitats like woodlands, lakes, urban habitats and open habitats. Members were split into smaller teams of two-five members. They surveyed the assigned region in the morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.