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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: info@bnhs.org

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