Bangalore Bird Count (BBC) 2014 — 16th February 2014, Bangalore

Birdwatchers in Bangalore had done a synchronous bird-watch in 2013 February in an attempt to cover all important birding sites in Bangalore to come up with an informally vetted list of birds seen on a single day around Bangalore. This year, there is a plan to re-run the event as Bangalore Bird Count on 16th of February 2014.

This is the co-ordinators’ invitation for anybody who would like to participate – to contact one of them and they will try to put you along with others who are visiting birding sites around your locality.

They have already put a word to all the people who joined last year – and as it stands today, they have confirmed/tentative teams/birders visiting the following locations as their primary site (i.e. morning birding).

Cubbon Park, Hoskote, Kaikondrahalli, Hebbal, Rampura-Kalkare, Nandi Hills, GKVK Campus, Madhure, Hesseraghatta, Hulimangala, Ramnagara, Shivanahalli, Jaipurdodi, Kanakapura, Savandurga.

Apart from this, some of the teams are visiting the following areas after their morning session.

Yellamallappa Chetty, Bellandur, Muthanallur, Jakkur, IISc Campus, Anekal Area, Byramangala, Nelligudda, Valley School Area.

These are however tentative assignments – based on last minute cancellations, they might shuffle to ensure the best areas are well covered. Like last year, the list from 3rd Sunday outing will also get entered into BBC – hopefully by one of the leads in that trail.

One of the major differences from last year’s count is that they plan to use ebird.org as their platform for data entry and collation rather than inventing their own means.

As many of you would know, this event overlaps with two other pan-India events and the best thing is that all these events will use eBird in the backend and hence data sharing is quite easy. So you can participate in one(the local event) and ensure you participate in all.

Great Backyard Bird Count – India, the posting of the same shall happen shortly, shall be done between 14-17 February 2014 and all the GBBC lists done from Bangalore on 16th of February shall automatically be collected for BBC. All eBird lists from India made during those four days will be considered for GBBC – hence, it will also include the BBC submissions.

Big Bird Day (BBD) is another pan-India event for which similar site specific lists are collected all over the country – a posting awaited shortly. If you would like participate in BBD from Bangalore, just inform the co-ordinators by email after the birding session – they will consider your BBC list in eBird as a submission towards BBD under your name. Hence, when you participate in BBC, this means you can participate in BBD also by a simple confirmation email send to them offline.

Please mail the co-ordinators (below) if you would like to join the teams and they will get back to you.

Praveen J: paintedstork AT gmail.com
Prashanth MB: prashanth.mb AT gmail.com