Bird Count India update

[BirdCount India]

Dear friends,

Here is a brief update about what has been happening with the Bird Count India partnership, and to ask your help in encouraging birders to participate in the upcoming Great Backyard Bird Count, a flagship event of the partnership.

Brief update on Bird Count India and eBird

• The Bird Count India partnership is growing incrementally, and you can see a list of all partners here.
  
  
• Our eBirding Challenges continue. We announced a year-long 2015 challenge; and the current monthly challenge is here.
  
  
• Various local and regional events are using eBird as a tool in their efforts to document birds. Recent events include the Pongal Bird Count in Tamil Nadu, the All Goa Waterfowl Count, and the Asian Waterbird Census in some states (eg Kerala). Upcoming events that will be run through eBird include the Uttarakhand Spring Bird Festival, the Great Backyard Bird Count, the Kerala Common Bird Monitoring Programme, the Bengaluru Bird Count, and the Big Bird Day.
  
  
• Following the pioneering Mysore Bird Atlas, a few more cities have expressed interest in running their own atlas projects, including Amravati, Nagpur and Pune. There is also an ongoing effort to create a Dehradun Valley Bird Atlas.
  
  
• In terms of quantity, eBird-India now holds over 900,000 records of birds across the country, contributed by around 2,500 birders. The current rate of growth is roughly 100,000 records per month.
  
  
• You can see maps of any species you choose, seasonality charts, species lists for the country, each state, each district, and many hundred specific locations ('hotspots' in eBird). We hope that this and other output will be of interest to you and to birders across the country -- the larger purpose of eBird is to generate publicly accessible information that is of use to research and conservation.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2015

• The GBBC is a global bird watching and documenting event. 2015 will be the third year in which Indian birders are taking part.
  
  
• This year the dates are 13-16 February
  
  
• To get an idea of some outcomes of the GBBC, you can see a brief summary of 2014 results here. India reported more species than any other country in 2014!
  
  
• This is the webpage for GBBC-India 2015.
  
  
• Because the GBBC is a global event, it provides a good opportunity to generate interest in birding among the general public. Some ideas for how GBBC can be used for outreach are here.
  
  
• In addition, this year we are running a sub-event called Campus Bird Count in which birders on campuses of various kinds are invited to intensively document their birds during the four days of the GBBC. Many campuses have already signed up; if you know of other potential campuses for this, please do email me.
  
  
• As last year, the Kerala Common Bird Monitoring Programme and the Bengaluru Bird Count will be run simultaneously with the GBBC. If there is any interest in coordinating similar local/regional projects during this time period, please do let me know.

Help with outreach for bird listing and monitoring

• We are looking for volunteers to help with various kinds of outreach activities that will strengthen the Bird Count India partnership and further its objectives.This may involve communicating with people over email and phone; handholding them through first steps in eBird; contacting journalists or other mediapersons; giving talks on birds, birding and eBird; leading birdwalks for beginners, and so on.
  
  
• If you know anyone who might be interested in helping in this way, can you please pass on their contact details to me?

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to working together to further the cause of birding, bird monitoring and bird conservation!

With all warm wishes,
Bird Count India

The Bird Count India partnership

Supporting listing and monitoring of birds

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