Bird watchers join hands to document birds of Hyderabad

The efforts to prepare Hyderabad Bird Atlas (HBA) got off to a grand start as 209 bird watchers across the State capital documented 195 bird species including 53 migrant birds at 180 grid locations

Sangareddy: The efforts to prepare Hyderabad Bird Atlas (HBA) got off to a grand start as 209 bird watchers across the State capital documented 195 bird species including 53 migrant birds at 180 grid locations.

The volunteers joined hands to document and study the avifaunal diversity of Hyderabad in a scientific way. Though over 700 volunteers enrolled for the survey, only 209, who were thoroughly trained, could participate in the first phase. The survey that was jointly taken up by World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India)-, Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP), and Deccan Birders covered parks, wetlands, and scrublands within Outer Ring Road (ORR). The bird watchers had recorded over 70,187 birds. While rock pigeon was the most sighted bird with 7,775 birds during the 20-day survey that commenced on February 3, it was followed by cattle egret 3,613 and 2,136 red-vented bulbul.
A considerable population of migrant birds, Rosy Starling 2,791 and Barn Swallow, 2,550 were documented. The State bird, Indian Roller (Palapitta) was sighted 26 times at 22 locations. Purple Sunbird was identified at 564 locations out of 720 followed by Red-Vented Bulbul at 559 locations and spotted dove at 520 locations.

Some rare sightings include a common grasshopper warbler which was the first sighting within the ORR limits. The other rare sightings include Common Chiffchaff, Eastern Orphean Warbler, Baillon’s Crake, Common Cuckoo, Osprey and Peregrine Falcon.
Speaking to Telangana Today, Sriram Reddy, a key member of the project, said that they wanted to create a scientific document of birds present in Hyderabad. Sriram said that the effort will help to carry out conservation of avifaunal diversity and habitat protection in the State capital. He said that it is the first of its kind of effort in Telangana.

The second phase of the survey will be carried out in July this year. To make HBA more accurate and scientific, the team wanted to continue the cycle for next three to five years by surveying twice in a year.