This Bhogali Bihu, take out time for birdwatching too.
Bird Count India, an NGO, is launching for the first time Bihu Bird Count (BBC) bird-monitoring programme to list and count the wild birds during that particular time of the year in a specified area.
“Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu has its own way of celebrating the harvest season. It is that time of the year when you are surrounded by fog, cold night and migrating birds. Thus, BBC aims to document the diversity of bird species and their number in this time of the year,” the NGO says.
Only two states — Kerala and Tamil Nadu have birdwatching events during their festivals Onam and Pongal.
“We hope through this initiative we will be able to spread knowledge and awareness about birds and connect every human to nature. We can document birds wherever we are during Bihu — in the field, at our backyards. This is a good time for migratory birds,” a local organiser said.
One can sight gadwall, mallard, pochard, goose and many other birds.
The BBC also aims to promote association of the festival with nature. Bihu, a festival celebrated by the people of Assam, celebrates the natural progression of seasons by recognising the different agricultural cycle of paddy crops.
The BBC will take place from Saturday to Monday.
Those intending to participate in the bird-monitoring programme will have register at shorturl.at/ABCN5 link.
They can go birdwatching for at least 15 minutes (or as long as they want), listing and counting all the species one sees and hears. One may repeat as many times as he can during Bihu Bird Count.
The participants need to upload their lists into eBird-India. It is a global, Internet-based platform for collating observations of birds and for birders to maintain records of their sightings.
The rules say if one is birdwatching inside a society or on a campus (university, institute or organisation), he will have to check if his location is already marked as a “hotspot” in eBird-India. If it is, then he has to upload his lists to that “hotspot”. If it is not, he will have to request that the location be included as a hotspot.
The rules say: “Even if you are new to the concept of birdwatching, do not worry. Try to identify the bird species to the best of your ability or take help of an expert around you or can send a mail at bihubirdcount@gmail.com. However, it is extremely important that you do not misidentify a species, else it will change the statistics in the citizen science platform eBird.”
