Kerala Bird Race, Kerala’s biggest mass
bird watching event, will launch its seventh edition on Sunday, 10th
November 2013 in three major cities of Kerala – Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and
Kozhikode. Unlike the yesteryear editions, it will be non-competitive this year
as per the information from the Bird Race organizers.
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| Birders participating in an earlier edition of Kerala Bird Race Photo Courtesy: K. Ananthan |
During the event, birders in small groups
will compete to spot and identity as many birds as possible within the time
between dawn to dusk from a 100 km radius in the three cities. The teams in
each city will join together for dinner at a single place and will compare the
performances and discuss the findings. In the yesteryears, the team with the
most numbers of spotting used to bag the title. However, this year the event is
in non-competitive mode.
Bird Race in non-competitive mode
To promote more public participation, the
seventh Kerala Bird Race is held in a non-competitive mode, with no prizes for
the winners. “The idea is to see how many birds can be seen in a day by all the
teams put together. There are no strict rules and it is only about the fun
element in this exercise, which will hopefully help stimulate enormous interest
in bird-watching as a highly popular hobby”, says a correspondence from Kerala Birder, an online birder group in Kerala.
The highlight is that the participants will be looking for birds, not for prizes, hint the organizers. According to Sunjoy Monga, an organizer of the event, It will still be a race but all participants will be winners. "We are trying this format with some of the cities. The idea came about after discussions from findings wherein we found little bits of over-enthusiasm for prizes . So in a way, this format will hopefully help provide more factual results since no one is going to come first. By making it non-competitive, we will also know the real passionate from the I-want-to-win types ", he said.
However, participants may find surprises, not just the feathered ones in the field. As per sources close to the organizers, all participants will receive a special souvenir that is being prepared. All children between the age 6 - 12 are likely to receive a complimentary copy of book on birds for children.
The highlight is that the participants will be looking for birds, not for prizes, hint the organizers. According to Sunjoy Monga, an organizer of the event, It will still be a race but all participants will be winners. "We are trying this format with some of the cities. The idea came about after discussions from findings wherein we found little bits of over-enthusiasm for prizes . So in a way, this format will hopefully help provide more factual results since no one is going to come first. By making it non-competitive, we will also know the real passionate from the I-want-to-win types ", he said.
However, participants may find surprises, not just the feathered ones in the field. As per sources close to the organizers, all participants will receive a special souvenir that is being prepared. All children between the age 6 - 12 are likely to receive a complimentary copy of book on birds for children.
The race is organized annually to enlighten
the public about bird watching and to introduce the beginning birders to the religion of serious
birding, to keep the species of birders away from extinction. Bird Races in the country began in the year 2005 as a 100 participant event in
Mumbai. According to birders, It has grown into India's largest birding event with 16
cities and more than 3500 participants.
Kerala Bird Race had been attracting
birders and fresh hobbyists from all over the state and -in fact, even from
outside the state. “We sometimes have participants from Kanyakumari district
joining us at Thiruvananthapuram”, says the organizers. Last year, the race witnessed
about 350 participants.
Green groups in action
The race is being held with the active
co-ordination of major green groups in the state. While the race in the capital
city of Thiruvananthapuram will be organized and coordinated by the WWF-Kerala
team, Cochin Natural History Society will organize it in Cochin. Malabar Natural History Society will be the coordinators of the event in Kozhikode.
According to the organizers, anybody
interested can take part in the race with their own team, provided one in the
team is familiar with almost all of the bird species
found in the locality. However, if a beginning birder with no connections wants
to participate in the event, he or she can contact the coordinators to enroll
as part of a team. The event is organized with the support of Kerala Birder
along with The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and
Yuhina Eco-Media.
