Ornithophiles in Goa have a reason to celebrate as the Goa Forest Department is currently organising the sixth edition of the Bird Festival of Goa. Birds are beautiful creatures with their myriad colours and patterns and their calls that make them so beautiful to watch. For many living in different regions of Goa, it is not easy to spot a bird which prefer greenery and a different habitat but if one is interested they can head to the Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary at the break of dawn and enjoy the guided bird walks at the sanctuary for the next two days. Do carry your binoculars if you have them. To give a better understanding of bird watching, three sessions were held on January 15 at Siddhanath Parvat, Ponda, led by Mandar Bhagat, Codal-Satrem, Sattari, led by Jalmesh Karapurkar and Tambdi Surla, Dharbandora led by Manjeet Gawas.
The first Bird Festival of Goa was held in 2016 at Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary This year, the festival will include day long programmes beginning with the bird watching guided tour in the morning. There will be talks by prominent ornithologists, workshops by professional photographers and art shows by renowned artists. The first day of the festival had talks delivered Dr Ashwin Viswanathan on ‘State Of Indian Birds: How Are Goa’s Birds Doing?’ and Surender Mehra, Indian Forest Service (IFS) on ‘Developing local capacities for Avian Tourism in and around Protected Areas’.
On Saturday, January 28, Dr S Subramanya will present a talk on ‘In Search of Sep, The Oriental Pratincole’ at 11.30 am. Dr S Subramanya is an ornithologist and scientist, and was a senior faculty at the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, from where he retired in 2018. Besides studying various facets of birds, he specialises in studying heronries, wetlands, water birds and threatened birds. This will be followed by a talk by Abhisheka Krishnagopal on ‘Bird Art and Conservation Education’ at 2.30 pm. She is currently part of the Education and Public Engagement team of Nature Conservation Foundation with the Early Bird Programme. There will be a technical workshop followed by discussions at 3.15 pm. The evening session will include a bird and photo walk at 4.30 pm and a folk dance and music session to end the day. On January 29, Dr P Jeganathan will present a talk on ‘Confessions of a Crazy Birder’ at 10.30 am. P Jeganathan is a wildlife biologist working with the Nature Conservation Foundation. He has spent years researching one of the rarest birds in the world, the critically endangered Jerdon’s Courser.
There will be a photo exhibition featuring some of the best works of different photographers, and a live birding related demonstration as well as live demonstrations on the art of drawing and painting birds. The key objective of the festival is to scale up avi-faunal awareness, promote bird watching and open new vistas for eco-tourism/avi–tourism in Goa’s hinterland. It will also aid in organise bird walks, workshops, about different bird Conservation projects and educational activities for all ages.
Through the festival, the focus will be on bird conservation and their significance in the ecosystem.
