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Welcome to the Goa Bird Atlas Initiative
Initiated By
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Supported By
Partners
Overview
Goa bird atlas is an ambitious citizen science driven initiative to map the distribution and abundance of birds of Goa, inspired from the success of Kerala Bird Atlas. The Goa Bird Atlas Initiative is envisioned as a ONE year effort, and is expected to give fine resolution insights to distribution and abundance of the common birds which is poorly known. Being part of this effort will aid in conservation efforts targeted towards birds by providing:
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Information on the distribution, abundance, and seasonal patterns of bird populations.
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Providing species accounts that cover breeding distribution, migration, winter distribution and informs conservation outlook.
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Over long-term, document changes in distribution and abundance of our birds.
As individuals, apart from conservation implications by participation, you will have the chance to explore and observe birds in their natural habitats, while also helping us to gather important data. As an institution/ business, you have an opportunity of being part of a pan-India, multi-organisation/ business effort, aimed towards generating information for conservation of birds and their habitats.
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Participate/Partner
If you want to be a part of the Goa Bird Atlas Initiative, please get in touch with us
Support
Though the Goa Bird Atlas is primarily a citizen driven initiative, we envisage to train several students as "citizen scientists" and inculcate the nuances of the scientific method through rigorous training. The entire exercise is logistics heavy and needs extensive coordination. Realtime collation and dissemination of information generated from the Goa Bird Atlas is heavily human resource dependent. Further, we would love for our student volunteers to enjoy the process of being part of a conservation initiative, without burdening their pockets.
As an individual or organisation, if you are willing to support the atlas program through sponsorships or logistical support, please get in touch the Goa Bird Atlas Coordinator at contact@arannya.in
Atlas Protocol
Goa, India’s smallest state spans over a geographical area of 3,702 sq.km. The state is divided into cells of size 3.75 min x 3.75 min (equivalent to 6.6 km x 6.6 km) aligned to Survey of India maps. A total of 105 cells are laid out covering the entire state. Each cell is further divided into four quadrants of size 3.3 km x 3.3 km (420). Each quadrant is then sub-divided into 9 sub-cells of size 1.1 x 1.1 km (3780). A single, randomly selected sub-cell in every quadrant is chosen for the survey (409) excluding those in oceans and neighbouring states.
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The survey methods will closely follow the Kerala Bird Atlas Protocol v 1.2 but has been modified to suit the needs in Goa:
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Each team shall have maximum five birders and shall have atleast one expert bird-watcher selected by the coordinator.
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Each sub-cell shall have four 15 minute, travelling lists of all species counted/estimated and uploaded in eBird.
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Teams should attempt to cover all habitat types inside a sub-cell.
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Though it is okay to have just one team do all the four lists in a sub-cell, it is preferable that multiple teams divide the responsibility of covering a sub-cell. This gives us less observer bias.
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Though it is okay to have one team do all the four sub-cells one after the other on the same day, it is preferable to do these sub-cells split into multiple days to avoid bias due to transient weather conditions.
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Bird-watching times are generally expected to be between 6:00-10:00hrs and 16:00-18:00hrs. However individual teams are left to decide the best times of the day for birding in each sub-cell based on the habitat, disturbance and bird abundance.
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Forest sub-cells shall be strictly covered during 6:00-9:00hrs and exceptionally till 10:00hrs.
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Sub-cell has to be resampled if the lists are not representative due to unforeseen conditions like rain, disturbances, weather conditions, etc. and is decided together by coordinator and the lead birder.
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Principal Investigators
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Dr. Pronoy Baidya (+91 99529 80432)
Sujeetkumar M Dongre
State Coordinator
Jalmesh Karapurkar (+91 88067 72756)
Taluka Coordinators
Pernem - Manjeet Gawas (+91 90759 10778)
Bicholim - Jagannath Phadte (+91 84593 94432)
Bardez - Mayur Gawas (+91 96379 45158)
Tiswadi - Sagar Naik (+91 93099 25792)
Sattari - Shayeesh Pirankar (+91 90491 36261)
Phonda - Shubham Rane (+91 95453 04262)
Mormugao - Mandar Bhagat (+91 98221 68887)
Salcete - Filomena Pereira (+91 91588 47702)
Dharbandora - Kuldip Topo (+91 86691 78705)
Sanguem - Omkar Dharwadkar (+91 90499 11877)
Quepem - Harshada Gauns (+91 97640 63996)
Canacona - Dipak Bowalkar (+91 86989 73759)