Kerala Bird Monitoring Workshop June 2022

For the seventh year, a single day workshop on Bird Monitoring in Kerala was held at the Academy of Climate Change Education & Research,  Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur on 19 June 2022. About 130 birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts, representing various organisations in Kerala participated in the workshop. Participants represented Cochin Natural History Society (CNHS), Malabar Natural History Society (MNHS), World Wide Fund for Nature – Kerala (WWF),  Bird Count India,  KeralaBirder, Birdwatchers of Kerala, Kerala Natural History Society (KNHS), Hume’s Centre for Ecology & Wildlife Biology, College of Forestry, Kole Birders, Kottayam Nature Society , Natural History Society of Palakkad (NHSP), Kasaragod Birders, Kollam Birding Batallion, Malappuram Birders, Pathanamthitta Birders, Birders Thodupuzha as well as members from several Whatsapp groups and college students. Discussions were on various topics including How to – (a) Continue existing annual monitoring exercises (b) Scale monitoring to local levels (b) Support districts in their monitoring plans (c) Address gender diversity  (d) Use existing data/information for next level outputs in conservation (e) Improve data quality, and (f) Monitor specific species that are not covered in general monitoring.

Key Decisions – Overall

• Create a regional redlist of birds of Kerala.
• Start panchayat-level monitoring in select districts/panchayats during OBC & GBBC.
• Collaborate with Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSSB) in AWC and panchayat monitoring.
• Data quality marathons as a means to involve eBirders in data quality control in citizen science.
• Increase thrust of Campus Bird Monitoring during GBBC & OBC encouraging women to participate.
• Pelagic bird identification training program for fishermen.
• Possibility of a heronry monitoring app discussed.
• Specific support from forest department towards monitoring in forests as well as outside required.
• Start focused monitoring in certain sites – covering autumn migration of waders, raptors and open landscape birds.
• Focus group and a strategy required on digital outreach towards new people through new social media platforms like Instagram.
• Minutes of the meeting.

Presentations

• District level activities: Status & Ambitions (Premchand)
• Redlist of birds of Kerala (Praveen J)
• Heronry Counts (Roshnath)
• Women in birding: Actionable strategies (Sreedevi)
• Climate change & species declines (Ashwin)
• Improving data quality in eBird (Maxim)
• കടൽ പക്ഷി സർവ്വേ ; വെല്ലുവിളികളും പരിഹാരങ്ങളും (Satyan)
• Wetland Counts (ES Praveen)
• Spreading the Monitoring Network in Panchayats (Harikumar Mannar)
• Monitoring specific bird species or bird communities (Ratheesh)
• Digital outreach for CitSci participation (Anish)
• Strategies for conservation of bird habitats (Jayadev Menon)
• Introductory slide, Agenda & Introduction to Kerala Bird Monitoring (Praveen J)

Kerala Bird Monitoring Workshop 2022

See details of the 2019 Workshop.

See details of the 2018 Workshop.

See details of the 2017 Workshop.

See details of the 2016 Workshop.

See details of the 2015 Workshop.

See details of the 2014 Workshop.

Header Image: Rufous-bellied Eagle Lophotriorchis kienerii ©Sreekanth C/ Macaulay Library