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SUMMARY REPORT
ON
2017 BIRD COUNT
(WINTER, SUMMER AND MONSOON-2017)
UNDER COMMON BIRD MONITORING PROGRAMME
BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY
2017
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Address:-
Bombay Natural History Society,
Hornbill House, S.B. Singh Road,
Mumbai 400 001, Maharashtra, India.
Tel.: (91-22) 2282 1811
Fax: (91-22) 2283 7615
Email: [email protected]
Cover photo- Mr. Nandkishor Dudhe
Recommended citation:-
Dudhe, N., Kasambe, R., Rane, H (2017) Summary report on 2017 bird count (Winter
Summer and Monsoon - 2017) under the Common Bird Monitoring Programme.
Bombay Natural History Society and Indian Bird Conservation Network. Pp.23.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4
Results ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 9
Media coverage............................................................................................................................ 13
Photo Gallery ............................................................................................................................... 19
List of Tables, Maps, Figures and Images
Table 1:- List of common species with total count recorded during count----------------------------5
Table2: - List of District Coordinators in Maharashtra--------------------------------------------------9
Table3:- List of Organisations in Maharashtra----------------------------------------------------------10
List of Participants------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Map1: - Locations of grids across India--------------------------------------------------------------------7
Map2: - Locations of grids in Maharashtra----------------------------------------------------------------8
Figure 1:- - Distribution of habitats of all grids-----------------------------------------------------------5
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Introduction
Birds are good indicators of a healthy environment, but there is increasing evidence published in
news and scientific papers that even some of the common birds, like the ubiquitous House Sparrows,
are in decline. The time has come to pay attention to our common birds to support monitoring of the
environment and to recognize early on where conservation interventions are needed to avoid drastic
declines in common species, as happened with vultures across India.
Common Bird Monitoring is a Citizen Science Programme. Initiated by the Bombay Natural History
Society, the objective of the programme is to involve more and more people to observe birds found in
their backyard or in locations they visit frequently. In fact, Citizen Science is the best way to collect
data on a nation-wide scale. There are several existing good initiatives that are enabling people to
record their observations. However, there is a need to accurately monitor trends in the populations of
common birds. Common Bird Monitoring Programme works towards fulfilling this need in India.
The bird count is organised three times in a year to cover monsoon (September), winter (January) and
summer (April). Participants are encouraged to ideally start the counts around 7 a.m., and not later
than 9 a.m.
In the year 2017, we undertook all three season counts. Participants were intimated about the count
dates and the process through media, social networking sites, Google groups and other modes of
communication. Grids were plotted on the map of India with the help of GIS software. Though
counts were undertaken throughout the country, the focus area was restricted to Maharashtra. The
grids were shared with the birdwatchers. The size of each gird was 2X2 km. A checklist was
provided on the IBCN website (www.ibcn.in) and the participants were requested to download and
record their sightings in the checklist. The complete list of all species spotted (ideally observed by
individuals) was submitted by each participant or team through email. All the three counts saw good
participation, with the total number of bird count stands at 51095.
The Common Bird Monitoring Programme encourages participants to conduct surveys throughout
the year in the chosen place/grid for longer durations to make the study more meaningful.
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Results The count concluded with a record of 51095 birds from 101 grids spread across 10 states in India.
Maximum observations were recorded in Maharashtra (80 grids). Other states which participated in
the count are Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu,
and West Bengal. The girds were divided into 4 types of habitats viz., wetland, agriculture, urban
area and forest. While 30.69% counts were done in agriculture area, 29.70% counts were in urban
area and 26.73% counts were in wetland habitats and the remaining 12.87% counts were done in
forest habitats.
Figure 1: - Distribution of grids across different habitats.
A total of 263 species were recorded (excluding the unidentified species). The count reproduced
below is based on the data received from participants. Rock Pigeon Columba liviawas recorded the
highest count among all bird species with 4445 individuals (thus found to be most abundant)
followed by Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri (3712), House Sparrow Passer domesticus
(3287), Red-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer (2958), House Crow Corvus splendens (2110),
Common Myna Acridotheres tristis (1853) and Laughing Dove (Little Brown Dove) Streptopelia
senegalensis (1498).
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Table1: - List of common species with total count recorded during count.
Following table showing the list of common species with the total count recorded during count.
Sr. no. Name of Species Scientific Name Total
1. Rock Pigeon Columba livia 4445
2. Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri 3712
3. House Sparrow Passer domesticus 3287
4. Red-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer 2958
5. House Crow Corvus splendens 2110
6. Common Myna Acridotheres tristis 1853
7. Laughing Dove (Little Brown Dove) Streptopelia senegalensis 1498
8. Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus 1323
9. Little Cormorant Microcarbo niger 1157
10. ‘Indian’ Baya Weaver Ploceus p. philippinus 1134
11. Jungle Babbler Turdoides striata 1101
12. Lesser Whistling-duck Dendrocygna javanica 1003
13. Little Green Bee-eater Merops orientalis 871
14. Black Drongo Dicrurus macrocercus 790
15. Indian Robin Copsychus fulicatus 787
16. Indian Silverbill Euodice malabarica 755
17. Eurasian Coot Fulica atra 714
18. Brahminy Starling (Brahminy Myna) Sturnia pagodarum 713
19. Ashy Prinia Prinia socialis 682
20. Little Egret Egretta garzetta 588
21. Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina 588
22. Asian Pied Starling Gracupica contra 529
23. Red-wattled Lapwing Vanellus indicus 520
24. Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 513
25. Indian Pond-Heron Ardeola grayii 494
26. Common Babbler Turdoides caudatus 446
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Red-vented Bulbul was found in most, i.e. 93 out of 101 grids; on this basis of its distribution,
we can conclude it to be the commonest species.
Map 1: - Location of grids across India.
Location of grids across India
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Map 2:- Location of grids across Maharashtra
Location of grids across Maharashtra
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Acknowledgements
The report of the Common Bird Monitoring Porgramme was a result of the exhaustive work
Involving manual compilation of the data, which has been collected over a period of one year by
more than 100 participants, some being amateur birdwatchers and others being professional
ornithologists. We acknowledge their contribution.
Table2: - List of District Coordinators in Maharashtra.
Sr. no. Name of district Name of district coordinator
Maharashtra State Coordinator Jayant Wadatkar
Amravati Division
1 Amravati Kiran More
2 Washim Milind Sawdekar, Shivaji Bali, Prushottam Ingle
3 Yavatmal Praveen Joshi
Nagpur Division
1 Bhandara Swapnil Wankhade,
2 Nagpur Bahar Baviskar
3 Chandrapur Prakash Kamde
Aurangabad Division
1 Latur Rahul Jawalge
2 Osmanabad Manoj Bharat Dolare
Kokan Division
1 Mumbai Mahesh N. Sanzgiri
2 Sindhudurg Ashwini Joshi
Nashik Division
1 Dhule Vinod Bhagwat
2 Jalgaon Anil Mahajan
Pune Division
1 Kolhapur Yuraj Patil and Balkrushna Varuthe
2 Pune Amey Paranjape
3 Sangli Sharad Apte
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Table3:- List of participant Organisations in Maharashtra
Sr. No. Name of Organisation District
1. Wildlife & Environment Conservation Society Amravati
2. Chatak Nature Conservation Society, Varangaon Jalgaon
3. Nisargvedh Organisation Dhule
4. Drushti Foundation Osmanabad
5. Vivekananda Foundation Kolhapur
6. Ichalkaranji Pakshimitra Group Kolhapur
7. Wild Kokan Sindhudurg
8. Society for Wildlife Conservation, Education and
Research (Wild-CER)
Nagpur
List of Participants (in the order of first name)
Abhijeet Vathkar
Abhishek
Abhishek Shahapurkar
Aditya Shaha
Aishwarya Zele
Akhilesh Bharos
Akhilesh Varute
Akshay Khandare
Akshay Wankhade
Alka Kolipakam
Amay Paranjpe
Ameet Mandavia
Ameya Marathe
Amit Kurandi
Amit Sahoo
Amit Sontakke
Anil Mahajan
Anjali Parshuram Roda
Anuradha Prabhu
Anurag Tiwari
Arbag Udiwale
Arun M K Bharos
Ashwini Joshi
Atul Vibhandik
Balkrishna Varute
Chand Manjare
Chitkala Kulkarni
Chitra Dangra
Dashavatar Bade
Dattakumar Chavan
Dattatray D.Thorat
Deepak Dabhere
Deepak Patil
Deependra Diwan
Deepshikha Mehra
Dhirendra Holikar
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Digambar Gayakwad
Dizuga Madhab
Mohapatra
Dnyaneshwari Kamath
Faiz Bux
Ganesh Margaj
Gaurav Nihlani
Gauri Rane
Himanshu Gunde
Indrapratap Thakare
Ishtiyak Ahmed
Jagdish Devchakke
Jalandar Patil
Jayant Atre
Jayant Wadatkar
Jayashree V Parab
Jaydeep Padwal
Jayraj Khochare
K V Bhagwat
Kalyanrao Salunke
Kapil Joshi
Kaushal Shah
Ketki Gadge
Kiran More
Kiran More
Kishor Gathadi
Kokitkar
Lakshmikant Neve
Lalit Mohan Panda
Leena Muraleedharan
Madan Tillu
Mahesh Mangave
Mahesh Sanzgiri
Manisha Patil
Manoj Dolare
Milind Sawadekar
Mohit Sahu
Muskan Mujawar
Nandkishor Dudhe
Netaji Rathod
Nihal Rao
Nilay Nagdeve
Nilesh Sarnaik
Ninad Shah
Nitin Mahale
Ojaswara Pathak
Omkar Sardar
Onkar Kumbhar
P Ranjangam
Parag Ramteke
Pawan Shikhare
Piyush Chhawsaria
Prachi Tillu
Pradeep Kumar
Chaudhary
Pradip Gore
Pradnya A Redij
Prafulla Gawande
Prakash Kamde
Pramod Kumbhare
Pranav More
Prantik Ranjan Roy
Prasad Chivate
Praveen Joshi
Preetam Tulshibagwale
Prushottam Ingle
Raghunath Iyer
Rahul Jawale
Rahul Shukla
Rajendra Gadgil
Rajendra Ghodke
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Rajesh Mangal
Ravi Sharma
Riddhi Bhandari
Rohan Dekate
Rohan Gopal Chauhan
Rohit Hazare
Ruchika Sangle
Rushikesh Shinde
Rutuja Kukade
Rutuja Okle
Ruturaj Mungse
S Raghunath
S Smita Sreeram
S T Chudhari
Sachin Kavade
Sachin Matkar
Sagar Chavan
Sagar Munishwar
Sagar N. Patil
Sagar Nagorao Chavan
Sagar Patil
Sai Shringare
Salima Kadir
Sameer H Shendre
Sameer Neve
Sameer Shendre
Sandeep Bagal
Sandeep Patil
Sandipan Ghosh
Sanjay Lotake
Sartha Parab
Sarvesh Marathe
Satish Kulkarni
Saurabh Jawanjal
Shahapurkar
Shashank Marathe
Shilpa Gadgil
Shirish Gajaralwar
Shishir Das
Shivani Tingse
Shivaji Bali
Shivani Tingse
Shubham Gupta
Shyam Mishra
Smriti Banode
Snehal Gajbiye
Soham Patil
Srushti Mehatkar
Subhash Puranik
Sudip Shahare
Suhas Rugge
Sujata Talegaonkar
Sukrut Chaudhari
Sunil Vasudev
Supriya Kawadkar
Surendra Bagada
Swapnil Dhargave
Swapnil Gaurav
Swapnil Kulkarni
Swapnil Phanse
Swapnil Shinde
Swapnil Wankhede
Swati Udayraj
Trupti Munishwar
Uday Chaudhari
Udayann Dayanand
Uttam Mohite
Varun Namdeo
Vijay Kale
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Vijay Singh Chandel
Vilas Mahajan
Vinaykumar Banker
Vinod Bhagwat
Vinod Kadtan
Vitthal Bargade
Vrinda A Shringare
Yuraj Patil
Media coverage
The Count received good response and coverage from the media. Following are the links of
newspapers and snap shots of the news articles published in various newspapers.
http://epao.net/epSubPageSelector.asp?src=BNHS_announces_third_common_bird_count_20170411&c
h=announcements&sub1=Ann_2017_Institute_of_Mental_Health_Tezpur_2012_20111229&ch=educatio
n&sub1=Education_Announcements&sub2=Edn_Ann_2011
http://www.readwhere.com/read/m/1168137/TARUN-BHARAT/12-04-2017#issue/6/1
http://naiduniaepaper.jagran.com/mpaper/12-apr-2017-74-edition-Indore-Page-1.html
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31829&articlexml=08042017005016
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31831&articlexml=08042017005016
Forever News
http://www.forevernews.in/bnhs-announces-third-common-bird-count-summer-bird-count-to-be-held-for-
a-week-71690
Punekar News
http://www.punekarnews.in/bnhs-announces-third-common-bird-count/
Indian Express
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/bnhs-announces-third-common-bird-count-4605661/
Times of India – Pune
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/third-bird-count-begins-today/articleshow/58087643.cms
Indian24 News
http://www.indian24news.com/india/bnhs-announces-third-common-bird-count/233251-news
News Magazine
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http://tech.theonlinewatchmovies.com/2017/04/08/bnhs-announces-third-common-bird-count/
shafaqna.com
http://in.shafaqna.com/EN/04472934
News Boss
http://newsboss.in/ly/f1Hm6G/BNHS-announces-third-common-bird-count
Indian 364
http://www.indian364.com/india/116673/BNHS-announces-third-common-bird-count
Lokmat – Mumbai (Clipping attached)
http://epaper.lokmat.com/epapernew.php?articleid=LOK_HMUM_20170411_4_6&arted=Hello%20Mu
bai&width=209px
Sakal 12 April 2017 Nayi Duniya April 12, 2017
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Tarun Bharat 12 April 2017 Maharashtra Times, Mumbai 08 April 2017
Lokmat Mumbai 11 April 2017 Maharashtra Times, Jalgaon 8 April 2017
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Divya Marathi 08 April 2017 Daily Sanchar 08 April 2017
Divya Marathi 18 April 2017 Divya Marathi 20 April 2017
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Maharashtra Times 14 April 2017 Sakal 16 April 2017
News from Bhubneswar (Odisha)
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Photo Gallery
Team member of Chatak Nature Conservation Society, Jalgaon, Maharashtra.
Usmanabad district, Maharashtra
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Team members of Watsagulm Biodiversity Conservation Society, Washim,
Team from New Chawre, Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
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Team members of Wildlife & Environment Conservation Society, Amravati district, Maharashtra.
Wild Kokan Organisation, Sawantwadi, Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra.
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Team from Dompada, Cuttack district, Odhisha.
Team of Conservation Education Centre (CEC) – Delhi
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Team of Kumbhej, Solapur District, Maharashtra