The challenge in July was simple – to upload 31 checklists for the month. August holds new challenges, and new surprises even where birdlife is concerned.
Most birds have bred by now and the adult birds are often joined by their young ones. It is also the time when winter migration for some birds becomes underway. European Rollers are already being seen in some parts of the country, while birders in Kerala have begun to report returning Lesser Sand Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers. So keep an eye out for an odd winter migrant turning up while you’re birding!
One of the best ways of running into something interesting is to explore a new birding site or a new habitat!
The challenge in August is to upload at least 5 checklists a week. Of the total checklists submitted in a month, 2 should be from an existing eBird hotspot where you have not birded before.
Remember, each checklist must contain no-Xs, be of at least 15 minutes duration, and should be effort-based (i.e. Stationary or Travelling). The hotspot must be an existing hotspot.
Find a hotspot near you be clicking here.
The Gap-filling Challenge this month (August 2017) is to upload a minimum of 4 checklists of at least 15 minutes duration each from one or more of the target districts. The target districts are the 395 districts that have 30 minutes or less of birding represented on eBird in the month of August of all previous years combined.
You can download the list of target districts in any of the following formats: CSV(14kb) PDF(99kb)
Please upload all your lists by 5 September 2017 so that we can announce the results the next day.
Here are the general rules of our monthly challenges. And check out the yearlong challenges as well! You can keep track of fresh lists coming in from India at this page.
Important. if you are new to eBird, please read this description first, and do take a look at our quick-start infographic and also the more comprehensive Beginner’s Guide.
Header Image: Gould’s Shortwing Brachypteryx stellata © Robert Hutchinson/ Macaulay Library/ IBC
