The turn of the year, and with it – a brand new challenge for the first month of 2018. January, amongst many things, is known for being the month that hosts the Asian Waterbird Census. Since 1987, birders have been going out to wetlands of all types across the country (and all of Asia!) to document bird populations as well as the state of wetlands which harbour these birds. Initiatives such as these contribute greatly to the documentation and continued monitoring efforts of our wetland birds and their habitats.
Find out more about the AWC here: https://birdcount.in/events/awc/
The challenge this month is to contribute to the national effort towards the AWC. To do this, upload an effort-based, complete checklist of a minimum of 15 minutes from at least 3 different wetlands (which can be rivers, lakes, reservoirs, tanks, swamps, coastal sites, mangrove and mudflats, reefs, sandy beaches, etc). This month, uploading to eBird is not enough; please also fill in the AWC Site Information Form with the relevant checklist links in it.
This is an easy process, as can be seen in the infographic below:
What is a wetland?
See this link for how AWC defines a wetland: https://south-asia.wetlands.org/wetlands/what-are-wetlands/
Reference list of wetlands AWC recommends covering: Google Spreadsheet
Wetlands can include rivers, lakes, reservoirs, tanks, swamps, coastal sites, mangrove and mudflats, reefs, sandy beaches, etc.
Please note that all users shared on the list(s) contributed to the AWC Site Information Form will also be eligible for the challenge. In other words, if a group of three people counts birds at a wetland, only one need upload his/her list to the AWC Site Information Form. But please ensure that the list is shared among all who were present. The counts can be done at any time in January.
Please upload all your lists by 5 February 2018 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 for 2018 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: Kuttettan Munnar, Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab
