Coimbatore : Around 236 species of birds were identified in Coimbatore by a team of bird watchers. Bird enthusiasts in the city came out in search of the birds for the whole day participating in the 10th Coimbatore Bird Race in and around Coimbatore city on 27 February 2022. Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) and Salim Ali Naturalist Forum (SANF) together organised this unique programme in partnership with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC).

All-India coordinator for the India Bird Races is ‘The Yuhina Canopy’, and the United Way Mumbai was the Facilitating Partner. Nearly 3000 people across more than a dozen Indian cities take part in the event between December and early March every year.

The Bird Race is a dawn-to-dusk event in which 26 teams of bird watchers participated this year, and spent an entire day spotting and identifying birds. This was followed by an online interactive get-together where all participants shared their experiences of the day with other teams and the coordinators. In contrast to the previous years, due to covid restrictions, participants uploaded the observation data to the eBird platform and shared the link with the coordinating team. The invaluable data thus gathered reflects the state of affairs about how urbanisation impacts the natural world.

At the end of the day, all the teams together had identified 236 species in a day. One team named Flycatchers had recorded many migratory flycatcher species such as Rusty tailed-Flycatcher, Blue-throated Flycatcher, Verditer Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher and also rare Taiga Flycatcher. Another team named Wryneck was thrilled by their exciting observation of a kill by Great Grey Shrike.