House sparrows and Indian peafowl birds that are close to our hearts are making a comeback, says a recent report titled “The State of India’s Birds”.
This comprehensive report is first of its kind created as a result of more than 15,000 birdwatcher’s contribution to the eBird – a citizen science platform by Cornell University. This report is an assessment of long-term trend, current trend, distribution range size and the conservation status of 867 Indian bird species.
Out of 867, 126 species have a stable or increasing trend. Blackheaded ibis and Oriental Darter – the globally near-threatened species are showing steady population increase in India.
Unlike sparrows and peafowl, birds endemic to the Western Ghats have declined considerably, the report adds. The numbers of raptors like eagles and migratory shorebirds are also in decline.
Image: Nilgiri pipit ( wiki commons CC BY-SA 3.0 )
One of the notable findings of this report is that the birds which feed on invertebrates have declined as a group. These new findings are aimed at promoting collaborations between the researchers and citizen scientists to investigate the cause of the decline.
Apart from the contribution from thousands of citizen scientists, the report at this scale becomes possible only because of the multi collaboration effort by ten different organisations.
This kind of report will help to gain conservation efforts on the species with high concern. It will also guide policymakers to update global as well as national priorities. Read more about this report at stateofindiasbirds.in.
Written by M R Raghul
