Pune tops in Great Backyard Bird Count in Maharashtra
Pune: In an indication of the popularity of bird watching in the city, the highest number of ‘checklists’ were generated by over 200 enthusiastic birders from various parts of the city. Pune is far ahead of other cities in the State with 3,661 ‘checklists’.
For an uninitiated, a ‘checklist’ is the record a birder or a group of birders make on an application about their bird sightings within a particular time span ranging from 15 minutes to a couple of hours in a particular area.
The occasion was the Great Backyard Bird Court (GBBC) organised by Cornell University and the Audubon Society from the USA from February 14 to 17. It is a world-wide exercise taken up annually by birders and is also called citizen-science count. It is coordinated by the Bird Count India in the country. This is the 12th year of the GBBC.
Pune groups of birders from various educational institutions and citizens groups such as the Pune Birding Community were involved in recording bird spotting from Vetal Tekdi, Pashan Lake, Kavdipat, Mahatma Tekdi, Mohammadwadi Forest Area, etc. They recorded bird sightings through the Cornell University apps ‘eBird’ and Merlin.
City-based environmentalists and birders Ranjeet Rane and Sumiti Saharan provided data quoting eBird on the GBBC. Amravati and Akola are the distant second and third, respectively, with 962 and 658 checklists. Mumbai Suburban stands at the fourth place with 369 checklists. As far as the number of species is concerned, Sindhudurg recorded 289 species while Puneites spotted 284 bird species. Raigad registered 241 species and ranked third. The total species recorded across Maharashtra were 418, which is the fourth highest number of bird species in a state in India. West Bengal recorded 552 species followed by Uttarakhand (452) and Assam (419).
Global statistics indicate that Colombia has the highest number of bird species (1,344) in the world. India has the second highest number of bird species (1,077) underlining the country’s rich biodiversity. Ecuador (1,051) and Brazil (1,050) rank third and fourth in the number of species across the globe.
Sumiti Saharan said, "The Great Backyard Bird Count in Pune showcased the city's vibrant birding community, uniting enthusiasts to celebrate and conserve avian diversity with passion and purpose.“The Pune birding community came together in a beautiful celebration of shared passion, with numerous first-time walk leaders inspiring others to discover the joy of birding and connect with nature.”
Photo credit: Ranjeet Rane & Durgesh Waikar
