Systematic Mapping of Avian Biodiversity through Public Participation

Overview

The Kerala Bird Atlas is an ambitious citizen science project to map the distribution and abundance of birds in an entire Indian state - the first of its kind in the country so far. The project was envisaged as a five-year activity during a workshop in July 2015 conducted at Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, with participation from several birdwatchers from Kerala. It is expected to give more insights into the abundance of the common birds, which was largely lacking.

By repeating the process over a period of 25 years or so, it will be possible to scientifically document changes in the distribution and abundance of birds in Kerala over a period. This has enormous implications for nature conservation, as birds are perfect indicators of the changing ecological conditions.

Vision:To comprehensively document and map the avian biodiversity of the Indian State of Kerala through public engagement and participation.

Objectives

y To document the current distribution of ~250 widespread and abundant birds of Kerala. y To consolidate the distribution of bird communities in Kerala (e.g., water birds, village birds, forest birds etc.) y To predict the distribution of the bird communities in the next 25 years under different climate and land use change scenarios. y To predict the distribution of certain key species in these declining and increasing bird communities in the next 25 years. y To identify the hotspots for endemic and threatened bird diversity in Kerala. y To identify the key focus areas outside the protected area network for conservation action.

Stakeholders Involved

1000+ participants from the Kerala Birding community, 25+ local NGOs and environment bodies from Kerala and adjacent states, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Bird Count India, Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust (DMNCT), the Kerala Forest Department, Nature Conservation Foundation, Bangalore, and the research community.

Solution and Implementation

Several prominent birdwatchers from various parts of the state met at Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, in June 2015 and prepared the blueprint for a state-wide bird atlas. Volunteers drove the entire planning and implementation of the Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA). Birdwatchers and ornithological organizations from across Kerala took up the task of conducting atlas surveys in their respective districts. One or two volunteers from every district acted as the district coordinator and liaised with birdwatchers in their regions.

Information about the atlas initiative was shared among the local birders via personal communication channels and press releases. Volunteers were assigned to survey teams and informed about the survey dates, protocols, and sites to be covered. Locus Free, an android GPS application, was used by several birdwatchers to locate sampling plots when internet connectivity was not available in the field. Bird checklists and related information were uploaded by volunteers to eBird, and district coordinators reviewed the same for protocol, location, and duration. An online Google Maps visualization was created to track the progress of the survey and to mark the surveyed sub-cells.

Field surveys were conducted from 2015 to 2020, twice a year, during dry (mid-January to mid-March) and wet (mid-July to mid-September) seasons, exactly for 60 days in each season per year. The dry season coincides with the peak activity of migratory species, while the wet season (monsoon) coincides with the breeding period of many resident species.