Context: Recently, Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2023 was conducted across 35 States and Union Territories.

About GBBC 2023

• It was released by Bird Count India (BCI).

• It describes more than 46,000 checklists and a total of 1,067 avian species were uploaded on e-Bird, an online platform to record bird observations. 

• The GBBC 2023 showed India’s birds are thriving in diverse habitats from the city to the countryside.

Key highlights

• India’s birds are thriving in diverse habitats from the city to the countryside.

• Top 3 states with highest number of species: West Bengal (489 species), Uttarakhand (426), and Arunachal Pradesh (407).

• This was followed by Assam (397), Karnataka (371), Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

• India’s birds are thriving in diverse habitats from the city to the countryside.

• A remarkable increase in participation across the country helped India upload the second-highest number of checklists after the United States of America and the third-highest species of any country.

About GBBC

• It was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real time.

• Bird Count India (BCI) organizes the GBBC in the country.

• Joint Partnership: It is an inter-organizational effort between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada.

Project Goal

• Each February, BIC invite people for 4 days to spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them.

• These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations.

History

• Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society.

• Birds Canada joined the project in 2009 to provide an expanded capacity to support participation in Canada.

• In 2013, It became a global project when they began entering data into eBird, the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project.