Kochi: Birders in the city can welcome the New Year by spending a day spotting their feathered friends.
The Kerala Bird Race 2018 to be held by the Hongkong and
Shanghai
Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) on December 30, will provide an opportunity to both the experienced hands and amateurs keen on birding.
The event, coordinated by the Cochin Natural History Society, the Centre for Wildlife Studies of the
Kerala Agricultural University
and Kole Birders, an environmental collective focused on Kole wetlands, will be conducted for the 12th consecutive year in the state.
The participants will be divided as teams so that the groups will be a mix of experienced bird watchers and amateurs.
“There are many places in the outskirts of the city like Kadamakkudy, where many varieties of birds can be spotted,” said Vishupriyan Kartha K, secretary of the Cochin Natural History Society.
The bird-watching session will be then followed by an interactive session with some of the finest and most experienced birders in that city, added Vishnupriyan.
The event, which had been conducted in Kozhikode,
Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, in the past years, will be held only in Kochi this year. “Our aim is to provide a common platform, where anyone can come and give a try on birdwatching. We want to promote
birdwatching
and to build a sense of
biodiversity
conservation,” he added.
According to the program coordinators, the data collected by the participants will be uploaded to the ‘eBird India’ portal, which is managed by the Bird Count India. It maintains a list of birds spotted by birders in India.
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