Celebrating- Big Bird Day 2022

“You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush.”― John Burroughs,

Big Bird Day is the day which is most awaited by every birdwatcher in Delhi-NCR , as well as across India. This is the day when we spend the entire day bird watching and recording the number of species sighted. The species are to be reported on the Ebird Portal for the consolidation. 

The Big Bird Day was initially started by the DelhiBird group, a concept thought by Nikhil Devasar and Bikram Grewal, as an informal event to be held in February or March. The first Big Bird Day was held on February 22, 2004, when 236 species of birds were spotted across Delhi.

The Big Bird Day was initially started by the DelhiBird group, created by Nikhil Devasar and Bikram Grewal, as an informal event to be held in February or March. The first Big Bird Day was held on February 22, 2004, when 236 species of birds were spotted across Delhi.

Though we generally go for birdwatching every weekend, but this day is always treated as special one for us. Our closed group (Arun, Kavi , Hemant and Myself) were getting company of larger audience today. We were going to cover Jhanjhrola Grassland, Power Grid area in Najafgarh and Chandu Budhera WTP .To me Jhanjhrola and Chandu are very special places they are just 45 to 30 minutes drive from my residence. I have spent significant time in these 2 areas in my free time. From last 1 year i have learnt a lot about bird id features and behavior. All thanks to Piyush and Kavi who keep on helping me with ID features of the birds .

So we all gather at NCI AIIMS (around half KM before Jhanjhrola Grassland) to consolidate the vehicles and started our day . With a beautiful sunrise in wonderful grassland we started our day with excellent sighting of Short-Eared Owl .It's a grassland bird who is seen in NCR during Winter Migrations and difficult to spot since they are camouflage in grass. We witnessed 5 of them being mobbed by Crows but everyone of us managed to get good shots of it.

On such eventful days, we have to cover lot of areas within shorter span of time so we divided so that we can explore the major area of grassland.

Myself, Kavi, Arun and Aditya were together in exploration and we see one bird of pray sitting on the perch. It was of Accipitar size and everyone on first instance thought of Common Kestrel which is seen regularly in winter season. When Kavi and myself have closer look in Binocs we could see white eye-brow and no tear drop and we were confirmed it to be Merlin. Merlin is quite rare in NCR region and it was a lifer for most of us. I had visited Desert National Park and Tal Chappar in past but couldn't check her in my list and it was wonderful to see him in NCR region and on Big Bird Day. We small group of people get to click pictures and then it got flushed later everyone were able to see it in scope.

After spending 2 hours in the grassland we decided to move to Power Grid Area in Najafgarh. I checked that place yesterday and it was quite full with geese , waterfowls and flamingoes. Today we could see around 50 Black Crowned Night Heron's flying, Marsh Harriers, Flamingoes and water fowls. Activity was quite less and the group decided to have breakfast before moving to next area.

Breakfast is one of the most important part of Delhi Bird walks. Everyone carries different kind of food and same was this time as well. Plenty of variety sandwiches, puffs, fruits, burgers, paranthas, cakes, coffee, tea, soft drinks and many more along with conversation about birds and experience of recent birdwatching trips which people had and what are planned in future.

Next in list was to explore Chandu Budhera WTP, which has been a hotspot since past 2 years. The

place is full of waders, dabbling ducks, geese, storks, cranes and birds of prey. Eastern Imperial Eagle, Desert Wheatear, Steppe Eagle, Sarus Cranes, Curlews, Kentish Plover were the highlights from this location.

A total of 214 species were reported during this year Big Bird Day, which is lowest in last 8 years . It has been impacted due to above normal rain fall and rise in temperature around the region.

Nevertheless it is always a nice experience to remember with lot of memories.

Following are ebird checklist of places covered.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S103152735
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103152756
https://ebird.org/checklist/S103152918

It would be nice to hear your experience during Big Bird Day. You can reach me at


1) Email - mohitmehta.pro@gmail.com
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