The nightjar is usually thought-about an elusive hen. But it’s typically discovered within the thickets of the HMT Estate in Kalamassery. With no flamboyant feathers or a musical name to boast of, it has a number of followers who go on the lookout for it. This medium-sized nocturnal hen has a singular camouflage method that includes it sitting immobile on tree branches or on the bottom through the day. “Its brownish, mottled plumage helps it blend with the surroundings. But what makes it truly amusing is that it sits tight even when it senses a threat close by; I have even heard instances of it being stepped on,” says Ashwin Girish, a younger birding fanatic from Kochi, who’s fascinated by the steadfastness of the nightjar.
A scholar of Zoology on the Sacred Heart College, Thevara, and an everyday participant in hen surveys and hen counts, Ashwin is amongst a rising community of birders in Ernakulam.
Painted storks at Kole Wetlands
| Photo Credit:
Ashwin Girish
In March 2025, Ernakulam emerged guidelines chief with 676 checklists (aggregated checklist of birds recognized) on eBird India, a collaborative venture managed by Bird Count India, which helps itemizing and monitoring of birds. The district additionally emerged species chief with 252 hen species reported in March. Among the birding hotspots, Mangalavanam topped the checklist with 349 checklists.
“On March 8 and 9 alone, 55 species of birds were recorded in Mangalavanam,” says Vishnupriyan Kartha, secretary of the Cochin Natural History Society, which has been actively collaborating in hen surveys in and round Ernakulam. Into its fifteenth 12 months, the CNHS has over a 100 members, which embody college students, professionals and senior residents.
Osprey clicked at Kole Wetlands, Thrissur
| Photo Credit:
Ashwin Girish
“The HMT Estate is a hotspot for birders in Ernakulam, with at least 225 species being recorded from here,” says Vishnupriyan, who has been an lively birder for over 30 years.
The wetlands in and across the district are additionally of particular significance to birders as they entice a variety of waterbird species. In the Kandakkadavu, Kadamakkudy, Varappuzha, Vypeen, Valanthakkadu, Valiyapadam, Nedumbassery, Karumalloor and Veliyathunadu areas, one can spot herons (gray and purple), egrets (little, medium and nice), gulls, terns, cormorants and species such because the marsh harrier. Valanthakkadu close to Maradu has a number of heronries (community nests of herons), too.
“While observing our natural environment, we also work towards protecting and preserving biodiversity,” Vishnupriyan provides.
The want for conservation
Although birders have reported over 560 species from Kerala over the previous couple of many years, 350 to 400 species of birds could be seen with affordable frequency, says Jayadev Menon, a seasoned birder from Kochi, who has participated in a number of hen surveys together with these performed by the Government Forest Department. But all is just not effectively, he provides. “Sequential loss of habitat owing to human activity and changes in weather patterns have reflected in the reducing bird populations that visit Kerala,” he says. “The HMT Estate, the green lung of Kochi, has lost a large portion to construction activities and it remains to be seen how many species would visit it in the following years,” says Jayadev, who began birding virtually 40 years in the past and has been part of the Asian Wetland Bureau’s annual mid-winter waterfowl census. “During a recent evening outing at the HMT Estate, we could spot four Indian paradise flycatchers, an amazingly beautiful and rare bird with a white body and black head,” he says.
A flock of Tibetan sand plovers at Puthuvype seashore
| Photo Credit:
Alen Alex P
Dopamine rush
Campus hen counts that happen alongside the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a citizen science effort to get the community concerned in birding, is a vital initiative that includes college students and younger birding fanatics, says Jayadev. (The thirteenth version of the GBBC was held in February 2025).
Alen Alex P, a second 12 months M.Sc Zoology scholar at UC College, Aluva, who took to birding after his expertise collaborating within the nice yard hen rely in 2022, loves the unpredictability of birding. “If you have been visiting a particular spot regularly to watch birds, one day, you may find a species that you had never seen before and that is what gives that dopamine rush,” he says. Alen, who hails from Pathanamthitta, has been a faithful birder for the previous 4 years, and is engaged on including to his life-list. He has noticed 316 species already in India (out of which 301 have been from Kerala).
Jerdon’s bushlark, a standard hen present in HMT Estate, Kalamassery
| Photo Credit:
Alen Alex P
His personal faculty campus has a wealth of hen life, says Alen. “Species such as grey-breasted prinia, black-naped oriole and the green imperial pigeon are commonly found on the campus,” he says. “The green imperial pigeon is a forest pigeon, it has a beautiful shade of green extending from its head to its wings, and we get to see it quite often on the campus.”
Technology and birding
With occasions such because the GBBC and with the recognition of platforms resembling eBird, which permits one to file hen sightings and calls from anyplace on the earth, hen remark has come a good distance, says Jayadev. “With apps and AI-based tools, you can now record your sightings on the go, as opposed to old times when we had to refer to bird books and maintain lists in notebooks. When I started birding, in 1987, I would draw the picture of a new species when I spotted it and verify it in a bird book,” he provides.
A black-rumped flameback (lesser golden backed woodpecker) clicked in Aluva
| Photo Credit:
Alen Alex P
For younger birders, it’s a passion that has introduced them a way of calm, taught them persistence, and earned them connections within the bigger birding community. As for the skilled birders, it’s an empowering passion that helps them care for his or her instant surroundings and contribute to the method of information assortment and evaluation, one hen at a time.
Published – March 14, 2025 03:12 pm IST
