Bengaluru Bird Day 2016

Bird Walk for School Children

Meet at the Queen’s Statue, opposite the KSCA Cricket Stadium. Grown-ups are welcome as well.

My Experience with Bird Baths — Talk by Shubha Bhat

In this talk, Shubha will share her experience with birdbaths at her home garden in the Indian Institute of Science campus, Bangalore. About seven years ago, she started to put out a small pot of water in her garden for birds and other creatures to drink. With crow as the first visitors, the pot slowly started to attract other birds such as doves, mynas, robins etc. This prompted her to expand the number and variety of pots to accommodate a much larger number of avian guests. She also started experimenting by watering the bushes to attract smaller birds.

Very soon, the diversity of bird population frequenting the birdbaths and bushes increased. Her garden became a water sports area for big and small birds alike. It was a treat to watch the birds play in the birdbaths. During the winters, the warblers started waking her up in the mornings, with their calls, asking her to water the bushes, their favorite play area. In just about five years, she could document more than 50 species of birds, including some rare and new records for Bangalore, such as the Kashmir Flycatcher and Tickell’s Thrush.

Since she had placed the birdbaths strategically, she could photograph and videograph them from her kitchen window, without disturbing the birds. This provided her an unique opportunity for her to study the behaviour of various birds. During this talk, she explore as to how one can entice birds into their gardens using birdbaths.

How to Observe Difficult Birds in the Field and Identify them? — Talk by Ramit Singal

One may have birded for years and years, and with time, are able to identify most birds without even looking at them. But just then, a tiny, skulking, nondescript `brown job’ may appear and completely stump you. Often, inconspicuous in plumage and secretive and shy in habit with a preference for the thickest of the shrubs and foliage, offering only tantalisingly fleeting glimpse and very few clues to help to identifying them. Needless to say, these birds remain as nightmares for most birders, young and old.

However, what many of these “little brown jobs” or just “brown/green jobs” or “Oh my! species” may lack for in visual clues – they often make up for with their vocal capabilities and behavioural cues. In such situations, what does one notice and when? Most often, there’s no one answer to that question – and to begin to identify these birds, one should start noticing characteristics of the bird and the context they are in, that our fieldguides very regularly fail to expand upon.

This talk is designed to prepare you with some clues on how to start identifying these birds and become a more efficient field birder.

Take a break, stretch your legs, and have a cup of coffee or tea.

I Searched Online and Found Nothing Useful — Hands-on Wikipedia Workshop by L. Shyamal

A hands-on workshop on how naturalists can learn to utilize and contribute to Wikipedia.

Note: Participants should bring their own laptops and wi-fi dongles/hotspot to participate in this workshop.

Indian students and lay researchers use the Internet mostly to obtain information. The most effective users know how to judge sources and use information with care. Often, one does not find all the information one needs online. Printed sources are often useful, but these are often inaccessible and those with the privilege of access to them, maintain the status quo and do not share information with others. Wikipedia is a great system for shared learning, but it requires some scholarly discipline to contribute effectively. In this workshop, we will examine some of the guidelines for learning online, conducting research and sharing one’s research findings. This will be done particularly within the topics of interest to outdoors enthusiasts and field biologists in India.

Join us for a simple networking lunch.

Birds in a Sketchbook — Hands-on Sketching Workshop by Sangeetha Kadur and Shilpa Shree P.

Note: Participants should bring their own pencils and sketchbooks to participate in this workshop.

Frozen in the moment, captured in a sketch… the fidgety, curious, impatient birds least but pose. As challenging as they can be, in this workshop lets one explore some fun, hands-on doodling and sketching techniques of our feathered friends. Understanding the form, postures and proportions would helps one with more clarity and provides the essential inputs for field sketching. This bird sketching workshop intends to align your observations and drawing skills and hopefully inspires to capture the birds in your Sketchbooks!

Take a break, stretch your legs, and have a cup of coffee or tea.

Birder on the Road — Talk by Shashank Dalvi

Shashank’s talk is about a journey which he took across India between the 1st January to 31st December 2015. The quest was to see as many species of birds as possible within the Indian limits in 1 calendar year. Needless to say, it was an action-packed year, with intense travel, non-stop, hardcore birding with many anecdotes of successes and failures. There was joy in finding vagrant warblers on the remote Nicobar Islands and in sighting rare, newly added birds to Indian birdlist, on the easternmost road of India. He also got to visit and bird in so many different geographic regions – from the tropical forests of northeast and the ghats, to the desserts of Rajasthan and Ladakh. All this travel was done on a shoestring budget with a race against the ticking clock. The year ended with a phenomenal list of1128 species of birds, besides several other fauna.

Take a break, stretch your legs, and have a cup of coffee or tea.

Dr. Joseph George Memorial Talk — From Birdwatching to Nature Walks by Karthikeyan S.

What began with birdwatching in city in the last millennium has quickly metamorphosed into a more holistic admiration of biodiversity around us. Several people have been instrumental in beginning and sustaining this group activity, in a bid to introduce us to the fascinating world around, Dr. Joseph George being a key player in this story. This talk takes a peep into changing trends in appreciating nature in the garden city of Bangalore. The speaker reminisces yesteryears, spanning the last four decades, through the lens of his personal journey.  

Thanksgiving and Recognitions

Recognition of birdwatchers who have contributed to the cause of group birdwatching in Bangalore.