Myna declared 'Bird of Month' by Nature Forever Society

The NFS will launch the Bird of the Month campaign, which is a part of the Common Bird Monitoring Programme (CBMP), a pioneer project to monitor 18 common birds of India, on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5.

June for myna: A myna perched on a wire. Pic/Shantanu Rajguru

The society, with the help of the public, will monitor, count and conserve the habitat of the mynas. Citizens will watch out for the myna along with the other common birds near their homes and mark the spot on the map where they locate these birds.

Distribution map
The information will be helpful in the long term to create a species distribution map and help in calculating bird populations. It will also help in assessing how habitat modifications affect different species of birds.

The mynas are identified by their brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. They feed on fruits, grains, nectar, insects, young birds and eggs.

They are considered to be the "farmer's friends" as they feed on insects harmful to the crop. Currently, little research has been done on the population and distribution of the myna in India and the rest of the subcontinent.

The bird of the month will be declared in the first week of the month along with detailed information on the species. According to Mohammed Dilawar, founder-president of NFS, knowledge about the status, population and distribution of common birds will help in the initiation of timely conservation measures that can save these birds from extinction.

"The data will help map the presence and absence and the population of these birds since there is currently no scientific data on these species in the country. It will help fill critical gaps and generate data over a period of time, which can be statistically analysed for launching conservation efforts," he said.

A photo competition will be held for each species identified as the bird of the month. People can click photograph the bird and send it to
photos@natureforever.org.

The bird mapping project
The Common Bird Monitoring Programme aims at monitoring through detailed mapping the 18 common bird species in the country, such as house sparrow, crow, rock pigeon, rose-ringed parakeet, Ashy Prinia and hoopoe. The entire sub-continent, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, will be mapped. u00a0