This citizen science project is aimed to understand the distribution and abundance of birds of the Coimbatore City through a systematic survey. This work closely follows the already completed Mysore city Bird Atlas and the ongoing Kerala Bird Atlas.
Technical support for this work will be provided by SACON, Bird Count India, and Kerala birders. Field Survey will be done mainly by the birdwatchers of Coimbatore in February and June from 2020 to 2022.
The city is divided into 37 grid cells of 3.3 x 3.3 km (1.875’ x 1.875’minutes). Each grid is divided into nine sub-cells of size 1.1 x 1.1 km (0.625’ x 0.625’ minutes). This gives us 333 sub-cells of which we will be surveying 111 sub-cells i.e. from each cell, three sub-cells will be randomly selected for the survey.
See Google map of Coimbatore city, with the 37 grid cells and 111 sub-cells overlaid. Please zoom in to see details of sub-cells locations.
Survey protocol
1. Birdwatcher teams sample 3 randomly selected sub-cells in every cell.
2. Each team shall have minimum of two birders and maximum of five birders and shall have at least one expert birder selected by the coordinators.
3. Each sub-cell shall have four 15 minutes, traveling lists of all species counted/estimated and uploaded in eBird. In case if are no accessibility to walk then a stationary list can be submitted.
4. Teams should attempt to cover all habitat types inside a sub-cell.
5. Though it is ok to have just one team do all the four lists in a sub-cell, it is preferable that multiple teams divided the responsibility of covering a sub-cell especially if the cells are adjacent to each other where the traveling distance may not be far and if the duration to cover this distance may not be too high. If this is not always possible then the sub-cell surveyed by a particular team shall not be visiting again the same cell for the next season/years survey. This gives us less observer bias.
6. Though it is ok to have one team do all the three sub-cells one after the other on the same day, it is preferable to do these sub-cells split into multiple days to avoid bias due to transient weather conditions. For example, easily accessible sub-cells can even be visited on four independent mornings for 15 minutes each, however, at least do two sub-cells in a cell on a different day.
7. Survey times are generally expected to be between 06:00-09:00 exceptionally till 10:00
8. Sub-cells have to be resampled if the lists are not representative due to unforeseen conditions like rain, disturbances, weather conditions, etc., and are decided together by the coordinator and the lead birder.
9. All lists should be taken while the birders are on foot.
Tool to Use
Data entry shall be in eBird via eBird app
Use LocusFree to find where you are using an Android smartphone.
Use GPX Viewer or QuoVadis Moblie if you are a Windows phone user.
eBird username of Coimbatore City Bird Atlas account is – kovaibirdatlas
Download KML file of the cells and sub-cells
Frequently Asked Questions: See here
Key Contacts:
Email: [email protected]
Mr. K. Selvaganesh – (Mobile: +91 94 88 975613 and +91 97 86 175613)
Dr. T Arulvelan – (Mobile 9025773115)
Header Image: Plain Prinia Prinia inornata by Sharang Satish/ Macaulay Library
