Hyderabad Bird Atlas to begin third season in February
The third season of the Hyderabad Bird Atlas will begin on February 7, inviting volunteers to map bird diversity within the city’s ORR limits. Organisers expect higher participation as the citizen science initiative continues to document migration and habitat changes.
Sangareddy: The third season of the Hyderabad Bird Atlas (HBA) will commence in February this year. The two week long bird survey of Hyderabad will begin on February 7 and end on February 22. The organisers have invited applications from wildlife enthusiasts across the city to participate in the voluntary exercise.
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 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 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. Birdwatchers also noted a decline in the population of Palapitta, the Telangana State bird.
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.
Speaking to Telangana Today, Sriram Reddy, a key member of the project, said they were expecting the participation of more volunteers this season as the initiative had drawn attention from all sections of society. He said the team hoped to add a few more species this season while studying various patterns of avifaunal diversity in Hyderabad city. He added that the survey would also provide an opportunity to compare how habitats and migration patterns had changed since last winter.
Sriram Reddy said that volunteers who had already registered for the previous two seasons would not need to register again, and urged them to encourage their friends to enrol for the third phase.
