Amazon Quiz (May 10, 2022): Which Indian state released a bird atlas which is dubbed as ‘Asia’s largest bird atlas’?

Kerala

Maharashtra

Madhya Pradesh

Odisha

Answer: Kerala

The Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA) is an ambitious citizen science project to map the distribution and populations of birds across the state.

The project began in 2015, when more than 850 bird watchers, NGOs, and government agencies took up the initiative as a five-year-challenge. After rigorous research and surveys, the project was finally completed in 2020.

Detailing the survey process, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which was part of the project, wrote, “During this period, bird surveys were conducted twice a year, covering two seasons: mid-July to mid-September (wet season) and mid-January to mid-March (dry season). Kerala has divided into grids of size 6.6 x 6.6 km. Each grid was divided into four quadrants of size 3.3 x 3.3 km, and each quadrant into nine sub-cells of size 1.1 x 1.1 km.”

“The bird-watching teams sampled one randomly selected sub-cell in every quadrant in Kerala (roughly 10% sampling). Each sub-cell had four 15 minutes travelling lists of all species counted/ estimated, and it was uploaded in the online citizen science portal eBird,” the WWF explained.

After compilation, the KBA found 229 species across Kerala, with the most commonly-found ones being White-cheeked Barbet, House Crow, and Common Mynah. The KBA also revealed that 47 species among the 229 identified were native to the Western Ghants.

In terms of threats to existence, the KBA found that nine species were listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN, while eight species were listed as Vulnerable.

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