Fourth season of Hyderabad Bird Atlas to begin on July 4 aiming to add few more species

The fourth season of the Hyderabad Bird Atlas will begin on July 4, with over 300 volunteers expected to participate. Organisers aim to document additional bird species beyond the 242 already recorded, while expanding survey coverage in eastern and northern Hyderabad

Sangareddy: Aiming to add a few more bird species to Hyderabad Bird Atlas (HBA) in addition to 242 bird species documented in first three seasons were combined, the team HBA is all set to launch the fourth season on July 4.

The 22-day long survey, which will end on July 26, is expected to attract the participation of over 300 volunteers. Since July is expected to receive incessant rains, Sriram Reddy, core member of HBA, told Telangana Today that they decided to carry the survey for 22 days, the longest of four seasons.

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While the HBA is a citizen science project being carried out jointly by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF India), Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP) and Deccan Birders, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Telangana Forest Department were also backing the team in their effort this time.

The team HBA had invited birdwatchers, nature enthusiasts, students, photographers, and first-time participants to join the city-wide citizen science effort to document Hyderabad’s birds and their habitats. The volunteers can log into hydbirdatlas.com website to enrol their names.

The HBA aims to prepare a detailed map of bird distribution within the boundaries of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) of the State capital. It will record the presence, abundance and breeding status of various bird species across different habitats within the city. The project will also document the migration patterns of various birds to Hyderabad during the winter and summer seasons through seasonal bird surveys.

The first season of HBA was carried out in February 2025, when 209 birdwatchers took part and recorded 195 bird species, including 53 migratory birds. The survey was conducted in a systematic manner by dividing the city into grids. Over 70,000 birds were recorded during the first season, including 7,700 rock pigeons.

During the second phase of the survey held in July last year, 225 birdwatchers recorded 166 bird species, of which 23 were new species not recorded in the first phase, taking the total number of species documented during the first two seasons to 218. Season 3, which was conducted in February 2026, had documented 214 bird species, the highest number so far, and 76,174 individual birds in Hyderabad.

When data from all three seasons are combined, HBA has documented an impressive total of 242 bird species across the state capital. Since most of the volunteers were enrolling from central and western parts of the city, Sriram Reddy said they could not focus much on eastern and northern parts of Hyderabad during the first three seasons.

With the special focus on these two parts, he hoped that they would add a few more bird species to HBA this year, which would further help them to understand the habitats, and migration patterns. There would be week end training sessions for the volunteers before the launch of survey.