The joy of birdwatching

It’s that time of the year again, when people witness and spot rare bird species! The Big Bird Day on February 18 is an annual national-level celebration of watching and documenting birds. The event has been gaining prominence among all the bird-lovers in India.  Closer home, Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP) has been regularly participating in the event since 2013 and even emerged the winner last year by reporting more than 260 bird species. Every year, self-organised volunteer birders under the guidance of chosen group leaders cover the birding spots from early morning to evening to see and photograph them.

As many as 12 teams (each team consisting of eight members) from HBP have been sent to 15 locations across Telangana.

“We expect to see breeding activity of resident birds, some previously-sighted rare birds and to explore new locations. We are really glad to see more and more people participating in the initiative and keeping the spirit alive. It has now become our annual festival that we celebrate meticulously. We’re trying to challenge our last year’s bird species count. By Sunday afternoon, our team has spotted more than 130 bird species. We are expecting a report of around 500 bird species from all the teams by the end of the day,” says Rajeev Khandelwal, of HBP, who is part of Team Rosefinch that went to Narsapur Forest.

Apparently, this year too, there were interesting species like Brahminy Kite (with fish kill), Indian Silverbill, Coppersmith Barbet, Common Iora, Black Redstart, Ultramarine Flycatcher, Red-Breasted Flycatcher, Brahminy Starling and Oriental Magpie-Robin amongst others, that were spotted.

Srinivas Mulagala from Team Spot Billed Pelican says, “We started at 6 am and spotted 130 species at ICRISAT. We spotted 88 species at Ameenpur (BHEL). Species like Black Redstart, Lesser Whistling Ducks, Bar-headed Goose and others were seen.”