Mumbai to witness 15th bird race event

Mumbai: The city is all set to witness the 15th India Bird Race, which will be held on Sunday. The programme aims to shed light on the variety of birds that are present in various avian-rich habitats of the city. Bird enthusiasts also stated that the event would help determine migratory pattern of birds within Mumbai.

During the event, a team of minimum four persons including a bird expert will visit various bird sites and count the different species in these areas. As of now, 350 participants have registered for the event.

“We make sure that every site that are rich in bird habitats are visited by the groups. This includes areas that are being explored from Murud Janjira to Virar as well as Matheran. These races have been conceptualised to help witness the avifauna of the urban areas, the wealth of their habitats and to popularise bird-watching thereby helping people have a better understandi-ng of the various aspects of our biodiversity and environment,” said Sunjoy Monga, an ornithologist and bird photographer.

Experts have also stated that this year is important, since the last few years have seen a decline in the total bird count. In 2018, only 253 bird species were spotted against 277 in 2015, when the bird race began.  

The last few years has seen very low sightings of woodpeckers, larks and wagtails, while there were no sightings of vultures, quails, red spur fowl and black redstart at all. The teams have the option of doing a half-day bird-watch up to about 1 pm, this year.