According to GBBC, India has the third most species of birds in the world after Colombia and Ecuador. There are a total of 1036 species of birds in India with West Bengal having the most of them. Kerela had the most number of bird checklists submitted to GBBC 2024. This year, bird watchers from all the states and UTs of India participated in the event.
Bird watchers and lovers from all over the country participated in a four-day citizen science initiative to document different bird species in all the states and UTs. A total of 1036 species of birds were documented and over 61,000 bird checklists were uploaded online on a platform called “ebird”.
According to Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2024, Indian bird watchers uploaded the second-highest number of checklists on the platform. Going by the preliminary results posted by GBBC on Monday, India has the third-highest number of bird species in the world following Colombia and Ecuador.
Kerala stands first when it comes to the most number of bird checklists, but West Bengal has the highest number of bird species. During the initiative, many restricted-range species called “High Priority” were documented the White-headed Starling, Forest Owlet, Andaman Serpent-Eagle, Nilgiri Laughingthrush, Andaman Woodpecker, Nilgiri Sholakili, White-bellied Blue Flycatcher, Bugun Liocichla, White-bellied Sholakili, and many more.
The GBBC is an annual citizen science event where bird watchers from all over the world come together and share information about the birds in their locality. It is a global event that aims for awareness and conservation of birds. The event generally takes place in February and encourages bird watchers to count birds from anywhere, even their backyards.
It started in 1998 as a way to count birds and keep data on their population, but it grew more than that and became a well-loved event worldwide. The GBBC has numerous participants from more than 100 countries. This year’s GBBC was special as this was the first time bird watchers from all the states and Union territories of India participated in the event and provided information about the birds in these areas.
Also Read: Groundbreaking Discovery: Researchers in Goa find 'gold' in mushrooms
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.