Nation-wide bird monitoring system need of the hour, say experts

Where have the house sparrows gone? It is a question ornithologist, researchers and bird watchers in the city have been asking for long. As we observe World Sparrow Day, experts say before we can ascertain whether the population of sparrows is dwindling or the birds have just flown away from the older habitats, a proper nation-wide bird monitoring system needs to be put in place.

“All we have at present is efforts by a few individuals and researchers in scattered areas to count the number of sparrows and not a country-wide repository of data. We actually don’t know what is happening,” said M.B. Krishna, ecologist and ornithologist.

Merely saying that the numbers are going down is not the right approach, he said and added that factors contributing to the decline need to be studied. “One issue is urbanisation and loss of agricultural fields. Also, the chicks of sparrows are very tiny and feed on insects. But, the insect populations itself is going down either because there are fewer plants which attract insects or the over use of pesticides, which kills them. Another problem is the lack of nesting and roosting sites. What we need is incorporating greenery in modern planning,” he said.

Nature Forever Society is giving away 210 feeder boxes and 65 nest boxes in places where a few sparrows have been spotted to increase the numbers. | Photo Credit: V Sreenivasa Murthy

Bird monitoring programme

Following a research paper on ‘House sparrows and human settlements’, Gubbi Labs, a research collective, has started a bird monitoring programme in Bengaluru. “The paper did not have a comparative study of numbers over the years and was based on observations. To ensure our research is more scientific, we have started the monitoring programme. The goal is to run it for a long period of time and then compare data to see if the numbers of sparrows, crows and myna have really gone down in urban spaces,” said H.S. Sudhira, researcher co-and author of the paper. Volunteers have been trained on bird sampling and data is being collected from places such as Lalbagh and Sankey Tank.

However, monitoring the bird numbers also require active citizen participation. Nature Forever Society, which has been working on sparrow conservations since 2005, tried to organise a sparrow count to record its distribution in the country, but found few participants to come up with proper data. “Though we continue our efforts in this regards, our focus is primarily on stabilising the sparrow population and habitat creation,” said Mohammed Dilawar, founder and president of the society.

Public participation

This year, the society is trying to build public participation by organising awareness programmes in Cubbon Park, Lalbagh and Bannerghatta Biological Park. “We have also identified places in Bengaluru, which have sparrow population and will be working with the locals to install bird feeders and nest boxes to increase the number of sparrows,” said Mr. Dilawar, adding that people's involvement in conservation efforts is absolutely necessary to succeed and it is possible in Bengaluru, which has a very active birding community.

“While sparrows were found in almost all parts of the city once, now they are restricted to fewer areas. Magadi Road, Marathahalli, Chickpet, Sultanpet, Rajajinagar and Ramamurthy Nagar have a larger population,” said Sharath Babu, city coordinator of the society. The society is giving away 210 feeder boxes and 65 nest boxes in places where at least a few sparrows have been spotted to increase the numbers.