Rajo Bird Count
14 June - 16 June
Celebrate Rajo with Birds! Join the Rajo Bird Count 2025 — 14–16 June 2025
Raja (pronounced Raw-Jaw) is a unique festival celebrated in Odisha that honours womanhood and marks the beginning of the agricultural year. Coinciding with the Mithuna solar month, it signals the arrival of the monsoon—a vital period for agriculture—and celebrates Earth’s life-giving power.
This season of rains brings more than relief from the summer heat. It fills the landscape with greenery and the air with the songs of birds! June is a wonderful time to witness resident birds engaging in a range of breeding behaviours.
Celebrate this special season by taking part in the Rajo Bird Count—India’s first national monsoon bird count.
Now in its second year, the event is organised by the Odisha Bird Monitoring Network in association with Bird Count India.
What is the Rajo Bird Count?
A citizen science event held across Odisha to document bird diversity and monitor breeding behaviour during the monsoon. By participating, you contribute to long-term monitoring efforts and help understand how climate change might be affecting bird breeding patterns.
How to Participate
- Watch and count birds from anywhere in Odisha during the 3-day event: 14–16 June 2025
- Upload your checklists through the eBird Mobile App
- Each list must be at least 15 minutes long (ideally exactly 15 minutes for better year-to-year comparison)
- Upload complete checklists with counts of all birds you could identify by sight and/or sound
Focus on Breeding Behaviour
One of the key goals of the Rajo Bird Count is to monitor bird breeding activity. To help with this:
- Report breeding codes on eBird when you see behaviours like nest building, feeding chicks, or courtship.
- In the eBird app: Tap the species name → tap ‘Add breeding code’ → choose the appropriate purple icon (see image below).
- Avoid using H (Appropriate Habitat) or F (Flyover) as breeding codes. Not every observation needs a code—only when breeding behaviour is clearly observed.
General Guidelines
- Visit multiple habitats across different regions if possible.
- Avoid using ‘X’—try to estimate actual counts.
- Multiple checklists from the same site are welcome.
- Upload all your checklists by 30 June 2025
For further queries, write to: tbbw.odisha@gmail.com
Happy Rajo birding!
Header Image: Fulvous Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna bicolor © Abhijit Mishra / Macaulay Library