Bird watchers and Ornithologists in Tamil Nadu have decided to use Pongal Holidays in a very creative manner as they have decided to carry out a statewide bird counting from Thursday.
The bird counting has been named, ‘Pongal Bird Counting’, and it will be carried out January 15 – 18, 2015. Birdwatchers and the public are requested to spend at least 15 minutes bird watching in their locality, and this is expected to fetch benign results.
‘Pongal Bird Counting’
‘Pongal Bird Counting’ aims to understand the distribution and abundance of common as well as un-common bird species in and across Tamil Nadu. This bird watching program is inspired by Kerala’s noted ‘Onam Bird Counting’ which was carried out in the last few years.
K. Gnanaskandan, Moderator of Tamil Birds Group and Regional Coordinator for Pongal Bird Count told that this is the first synchronized bird monitoring program that aims to record and monitor different species of birds in the state.
T Badri Narayanan, a Madurai based Ornithologist has huge expectations about this program. As per him, the ‘Pongal Bird Counting’ program will help to get an estimate of the bird population in the state.
He added that these kinds of programs will allow them to understand species that are nearing the jaws of extinction.
The data collected by people can be updated in a portal called ‘ebird’ (www.ebird.org). People can record the name of species along with their numbers on this website.
To know more details about the ‘Pongal Bird Watching’ program, please contact 90033-59400.