The Lockdown Birding Challenge ran from 27 March to 16 May 2020. The idea was to try and turn a difficult time into a positive contribution towards understanding India’s birds. The basic idea was to watch birds every day, twice a day (morning and evening) in a standardised manner so that the information generated could be compared over time and space. Full details are at the link above. Here we summarise some of the results.
In all, 2,560 birdwatchers across the country uploaded bird lists during the period of the challenge.
However, only seven birders met the challenge in full, uploading ‘complete’ lists of 15 min duration, once in the morning and once in the evening of all 51 days of the challenge. They are: Abhisheka Krishnagopal, Chirag Munje, Lakshmikant Neve, Loukika Neve, Selvaganesh K, Shylajesha S, Suhel Quader.
Here are others who came close to meeting the challenge in full:
- 50 days: Hardeep Gazdar, Jayadev Menon, Karthikeyan R, Steffin Babu, Swetashree Purohit
- 49 days: Tanuja Dasharath Haunsbhavi, Vishnupriyan Kartha
- 48 days: Lakshmi Sathyapal, Prabhakaran PV, Rama Narayanan, Sashi Kumar
- 47 days: Moovendan Ramalingam, Renju TR
Congratulations to all of them, and to the others who birded through the lockdown from their homes, even thought they may not have met the specific criteria of the challenge.
Where across the country did lockdown birding occur? The map below gives an answer to this question.
Locations of the 48,000 bird lists uploaded during the lockdown period. Each list is represented by a translucent circle. Multiple lists from the same location show as darker shades
The top ten districts in the country in terms of number of lockdown lists are Bangalore, KA (2525 lists); Ernakulam, KL (1548); Kollam, KL (1374); Alappuzha, KL (1260); Salem, TN (1078); Mysuru, KA (954); Kannur, KL (864); Mumbai, MH (661); Pune, MH (657); and Palakkad, KL (592).
Finally, what species were observed? The top ten species reported during the 51 days of lockdown across the country were: Asian Koel (62% of lists), Common Myna (59%), House Crow (59%), Feral Pigeon (55%), Large-billed Crow (50%), Rose-ringed Parakeet (44%), Common Tailorbird (43%), Black Kite (38%), Red-vented Bulbul (36%) and Oriental Magpie-Robin (30%).
That’s it for this brief summary. More analyses to follow. Thank you for taking part in lockdown birding!
this time too my name is missing in the list though i have uploaded for all 51 days..