Birds are around us and fascinating — but where to begin to know more about them?
I grew up in Durgapur, the Steel Township. A very picturesque city, and birds were all around us. Sparrows, Pigeons, and Parrots were all around us. But for some strange reason, we never took an interest in them.
When I look back I find that in some ways our interest was always more concentrated on trees, plants, and insects. Durgapur had a plethora of guava trees, as well as mahua — though conversion to liquor was unknown. It is part of the Chota Nagpur plateau, which is rich in vegetation.
We will go around looking for bush that has the centipedes, butterflies, caterpillars, and ants. Frankly, we lacked sensitivity and often will open up the pupa and larva, or even pull out the wings. The sensitivity of universal life was missing then.
I wonder why we did not take such an interest in the birds. Maybe we lived in relative poverty in a very poor country, and the connection was automatic with the plants and trees that were part of the family that gave us food. And caring much for the animals (beyond the street dogs and cats, and the milch cows) and birds was a luxury.
As I grew up, I slowly came across the bird lovers. I will hear friends saying they spent days on trips to find birds, and increasingly as cameral became ubiquitous, photograph them. I always thought — oh, so much for the birds? Which are all around? Is it not a little funny?
Fast forward to 2024. I joined a Post Graduate Diploma Course at Azim Premji University and met Manjeet Kaur Bal in class. Manjeet is many things, and one of them is being an avid Bird lover. So what could be better than taking her help in anchoring my journey in the space?
I requested Manjeet for a Zoom session on the subject and invited the class. A few joined, but the takeaways were many. Some lesser-known facts:
1. India is very rich in bird population, with over 1,200 species.
2. I knew birds communicate, but did not know that even a house crow has five different sounds for five different situations. And yes, flocks also communicate across the flocks.
3. Urban sounds create communication problems for the birds. What is a solution? Not easy, but many birds are moving away from the populated areas. So while we see fewer sparrows now, it does not necessarily.
4. The design of the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train has been inspired by the beaks of the Owl and Kingfisher.
5. Beaver makes 20–25 nests to attract the female and then one nest is accepted by the female after inspection. And Southern Coucal makes a nest and closes it with the female, and she is fed by males (who attack other nests for food).
So now that one may be curious, where can one learn more?
A book to start is “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent Paperback — Carol Inskipp, Richard Grimmett, and Tim Inskipp.
If want to learn and track using technology, great resources are available.
Merlin App for identification of the birds
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
eBird App to discover the world of the birds
And if one wants to learn in a structured way, these are excellent courses.
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/courses/ebird-essentials/
https://courses.early-bird.in/
So what are you waiting for?
