July brings the monsoon in full swing – clouds full of rain hang above, usually accompanied by thunder, lightning and strong winds. With the rains, the bare lands are transformed into lush grasslands and many species such as rain quails, bush-quails, and black & painted francolins are highly active. While some of these quails prefer grassy patches for food and cover, francolins often reveal themselves by calling loudly from their perches on top of a rock or an exposed tree branch.
With the abundance of water, the surrounding habitats support a great diversity of aquatic life: hydrophytes provide cover for fish, tadpoles, and substrate for invertebrates. Food is in big supply for elusive, skulking birds such as bitterns, watercocks, rails and crakes.
With grey, dreary skies it can still be fun to go birding with others. The eBird challenge for July is to submit 10 complete lists that are shared with at least two other people. Your shared lists count regardless of whether you shared a list or your birding partners shared it with you. Please note that all people on the shared checklist should be birding together and sharing with group accounts does not count for this challenge.
Please enter, share and accept all lists by 10th of the following month so that we can announce the results soon after.
Our resident and migrant breeders are still around continuing to care for their fledglings. So, please do select appropriate ‘breeding codes’ by clicking on ‘Add details’ next to the species name and then use the ‘Breeding code’ drop-down menu
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.
Here is more about checklist sharing.
