Several attempts have been made by birdwatchers from across Kerala to compile an atlas of birds in Kerala. They had started once in the 1990s and then again in 2005 with surveys but it never led anywhere. Five years ago, armed with technology, they set off again and finished the survey through 600 days, studying 10% of the state and covering an area of 38,863 square kilometers. Over a thousand birdwatchers took part in the survey in 4,000 locations across Kerala.
The Kerala Bird Atlas is a citizen science project to map the distribution and abundance of birds of an entire Indian state, said a press note released by the team.
"Thanks to the survey I could visit a village called Sreekrishnapuram, northwest of Palakkad, which I had always wanted to. I live in Bengaluru so I would go there on the weekends. It was a surprise to see eight different species of woodpeckers in the village, and this is not even close to the Western Ghats," says Praveen J, a state coordinator of the project.
Curious passersby would stop to ask what was going on. Praveen would explain with an example – “Have you seen peacocks in this area 20 years ago? No right. But what about now? You see them on every tree top? Yes, that’s what we want to learn.”
The team finished 95% of the identified locations in the dry season. The rest - with multiple floods and later COVID-19 - had to be restricted to 80% of the locations.
Every district had a dedicated number of birdwatchers doing the survey. Dr Jishnu, who was part of the Kollam team, was surprised to see a lot of new people joining the survey. “Perhaps they were always there on the backstage and now came to the front,” he jokes.
All types of birds visited Kollam since it was a mix of sea, lakes, hills, forests and marshy areas. “You’d see forest birds in Kottarakkara even though it’s rubber plantations there. Through the years, people have also become more aware of biodiversity and its importance. Wetland birds used to be caught or killed even as recently as eight years ago. But that’s reduced a lot now,” Dr Jishnu says.
The adverse effects of climate change are also visible. In the Shendurney reservoir, the river tern used to nest in big numbers but now there are much fewer, Dr Jishnu says.
They had the support of the Kerala Forest Department which allowed surveys in protected areas and reserve forests. In non-forest areas, the Social Forestry wing helped volunteers in reaching far off places.
The volunteers used the eBird app to record bird sightings and Locus Free App to find the location. The findings were updated on Google Spreadsheets.
Atlases of the districts - Alappuha, Thrissur and Kannur - have already been released.
Watch: A wet season survey by Pathanamthitta birdwatchers