In the dead of night on May 13, 2022, birder Sundar Muruganandan heard the Indian nightjar. The call, a distinctive ‘chonk, chonk’, was music to his ears. He was waiting to hear the bird, among other nocturnal birds such as the owl, at a forest bunglow on the outskirts of Coimbatore, and document it on the eBird mobile application. He, along with his team of three, was participating in birding as part of Endemic Bird Day. “We ranked first in Tamil Nadu for recording 140 species over a single day, and were among the top 10 in India,” recalls the 61-year-old entrepreneur.
In India, May 13 is observed as Endemic Bird Day by Bird Count of India, and the world over, it is the Global Big Day in which people document as many bird species as they can over a period of 24 hours. In its ninth edition currently, the event will see birders in India document endemic birds — those that are local to a particular geographical location — on the eBird platform.
