Dawn Chorus Day 2025

Join us to experience the magic of morning bird songs! Be part of the Dawn Chorus on Sunday, 23rd March 2025.

You can participate from anywhere in the country by recording bird vocalizations, processing them, and uploading them to your eBird checklists. You can choose to record songs from your rooftop and backyard, open landscapes and agricultural fields, wooded areas, or anywhere. We suggest that you identify the location in advance and do a practice run beforehand.

To participate in Dawn Chorus Day, simply follow this link to join our Dawn Chorus WhatsApp group.

Organised by Birdwatchers’ Society, in collaboration with Pentax Binoculars.

How to record and process bird vocalizations?

• Record sounds using either an external recording device or your in-built phone microphone
• On your phone, apps such a Merlin and Smart Recorder allow you to record audio in .WAV format
• Download your recordings in .WAV format from your phone to your PC, trim and normalize them using free software like Oceanaudio or Audacity so that they can be uploaded to the relevant species on the relevant eBird checklist
• Also share interesting recordings directly through email to [email protected], along with your name, location and time of the recording

How to make eBird checklists for Dawn Chorus Day?

• Start your first checklist just before dawn (at first light) when birds begin to sing
• You can make one or more checklists until up to two hours after dawn
• Make checklists that are exactly 15 minutes long so that timing of the vocalization is precise
• All lists should be complete checklists with counts of all birds that you could identify by sound and/or sight to the best of your ability
• Share your checklists with the eBird ID “dcindia”

How will uploading these sound recordings help?

• Your sound recordings will be used to train Merlin Sound ID
• India has around 239 species currently available for Sound ID but this number will grow as we record and upload more recordings!
• One day Merlin will be able to tell us all the species that are singing in our vicinity!
• Check out all recordings uploaded to eBird (via the Macaulay Library)!

To participate in Dawn Chorus Day, simply follow this link to join our Dawn Chorus WhatsApp group.

For any questions, please email: [email protected]

Learn more about the 1st Dawn Chorus Day celebration here.
Results of the 2nd edition of Dawn Chorus can be found here.

We hope you enjoy a wonderful experience of birdsong!

For further queries, email: [email protected] Hope you have a wonderful experience of bird song!

About Dawn Chorus Day:

Dawn Chorus Day is a celebration of birdsong! The collective sounds of birds in the morning are referred to as the “dawn chorus.” The dawn chorus of birds is not restricted to any particular season, as it can occur throughout the year. However, it is most notable during the breeding season in spring and early summer. In India and around the world, spring often marks the onset of the breeding season. Melodious songs fill the air as birds sing to establish their breeding territories, attract mates and communicate with other birds.
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Header Image: Oriental Magpie-Robin Copsychus saularis by Pranad Patil / Macaulay Library