Tokhü Emong Bird Count (TEBC), the first ever bird documentation event was held from November 4 to 7 in Wokha where birders in Nagaland came together to document the rich avian diversity of the state.
Over the four days of TEBC, 18 eBirders in Nagaland recorded 178 bird species and uploaded 84 checklists to eBird, an online platform to record bird observations. Birders from Dimapur, Kohima, Peren and Wokha districts contributed to the lists.
While TEBC is Nagaland’s festival, the bird count event was open to the public across India. Around 33 checklists came from regions outside Nagaland – Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The event was organised by the Wokha Forest Division and the Divisional Management Unit, Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP), and Bird Count India.
According to a press release on this preliminary report on TEBC, the idea behind the event was to get people interested in birds, create awareness and celebrate the rich bird diversity of Nagaland. “This kind of event can be useful for establishing a benchmark against which future studies of avian populations can be compared, which is especially important given the widespread effects of climate change in North East India,” said Mittal Gala, Program Manager for Bird Count India, Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), Bangalore.
“It’s a very good initiative to identify the different species that are found in the state with involvement of the local communities in the effort. Nagaland is a state with rich bird diversity and it is important to document as well as monitor their populations in order to protect and conserve them”, Suman WM Sivachar, DFO and DMU head, Wokha, Nagaland Forest Department in the release.
Some of the species recorded during TEBC included the Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler, Red-billed Liocichila, Rusty-capped Fulvetta, Little Bunting, etc.
For TEBC, birders were asked to go outdoors, spend at least 15 minutes watching birds, and upload their bird lists to eBird.
Lansothung Lotha (Department of Environment, Forests, & Climate Change, Nagaland), told Mokokchung Times that these are the preliminary findings, and that a more detailed report on the bird count is expected to be released in December 2022.
He also added that TEBC was a modest endeavor but exuded hope that it would become bigger in the future.
