Chandigarh Birdrace, a much anticipated annual birding event was held in Chandigarh on Sunday,11th February 2024. The event is open to interested birders both beginners and hardcore!
Members of Chandigarh Bird Club participated with their usual zeal and enthusiasm setting out at the crack of dawn to try and cover maximum number of diverse habitats in and around Chandigarh and at dusk they still hadn’t had enough but wanted a few more minutes before submitting their checklists!
This years event included a team of four from the Air Force station. They were all beginners for the event but being posted along the runways to keep them bird free they had developed an interest in the winged beauties and started to identify them. One had gone as far as doing the basic ornithology course with BNHS!The team from HSBC made a valiant effort and brought in a list of 25 species after an hours birding in their neighbourhood park.
A total of fifteen teams set out and managed to list 254, of the total 436 species on the ISCR birdlist, in a 12 hour period.It was marginally more than last years total of 236 species
Most of the teams managed over a hundred species with outstanding effort on the part of all the participants. Team Black Baza led by Gurjit Virk along with Shruti, Aseem and Jaspreet managed an astounding 195 species. Team Kestrel comprising of Mohit Kohli, Saiyyam Nagar, Sidharth Nagar and Rajive Das managed an equally great number of 171 species. Team Hariyal with Vikas Sharma,Praveen Nain,Preneet Shergill and Shilpi Sehgal clocked 161 species.
Among the star sightings like Chestnut-headed Tesia,Scaly-breasted Cupwing,Long-legged Buzzard,Indian spotted eagle,Collared scops owl the Bird of the Day would be awarded to Golden Bush-robin.