GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT 2023

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Context:  Over 46,000 checklists and 1,067 avian species were uploaded on e-Bird, an online platform to record bird observations.

Details:

Findings:

• West Bengal reported the highest number of species of birds, followed by Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh during the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2023 across 35 States and Union Territories from February 17 to February 20.
• Kerala recorded the highest number of checklists of birds, the Bird Count India (BCI) said.

About BCI:

• The BCI is an informal partnership of organisations and groups working together to increase collective knowledge about bird distributions and populations.

About e-bird:

• eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance.
• Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project expanded to include New Zealand in 2008 and again expanded to cover the whole world in June 2010
• eBird has been described as an ambitious example of enlisting amateurs to gather data on biodiversity for use in science.
• Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University and the National Audubon Society, eBird gathers basic data on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

About GBBC:

• The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a community science project in ornithology.
• It is conducted annually in mid-February.
• The event is supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.
• The GBBC was first launched in 1998 in the US. It is conducted around the second week of February.
• The Bird Count India organises the GBBC in the country.

https://epaper.thehindu.com/ccidist-ws/th/th_delhi/issues/26408/OPS/G21ATTR1H.1+GTGATUAVB.1.html