Regd. Office: Revathi Bhavan, Edathala P O, ALUVA-683561. Reg.No.: ER 18/10 of 2010 Telephone No.: 0484-2837414 Email:cochinnaturalhistorysociety@gmail.com


WELCOME TO THE COCHIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY

The Cochin Natural History Society is a non-profit making, non-political charitable institution registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1955. This is a society of amateur naturalists who live in harmony with nature and seek to protect and to preserve the biodiversity and healthy natural environment. The mandate of the society is to undertake studies and documentation of biodiversity around us and to draw attention to the aesthetic, economic, scientific and conservation aspects.The society also intends to provide a platform to those who are concerned to come together and share, enlarge and correct our knowledge about Nature and its magnificence. Any person, who has a love, interest and commitment towards conservation of our biodiversity and natural history may become a member of the society*.







"You can know the names of a bird in all languages of the world,but when you are finished ,
You will know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.....
So let`s look at the bird and see what it`s doing --that`s what counts.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."


-Nobel Laureate Richard P Feynman(1918-1988)


Thursday, May 8, 2014

CNHS partners with Bird Count India Consortium to promote Bird Watching and Monitoring Diversity


CNHS has joined Bird Count India which is  a consortium of organizations and groups working together to increase our collective knowledge about bird distributions and populations. The consortium has a set of specific goals.

Goals

We aim to document the distribution and abundance of Indian birds, from the finest scale (eg, within a city) to the largest (across the country).

Through the collection of information on birds across seasons and years, we hope to enable a better understanding of seasonal patterns of movement of birds, and to monitor changes in distribution and abundance of birds over long periods.

We try and meet these goals by conducting periodic bird events and activities; by offering support and resources to birding groups conducting their own events; and by putting together useful information on bird monitoring.

Activities

We coordinate the annual Great Backyard Bird Count in India, which provides a yearly snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds around us. In addition, we coordinate similar 4-day bird counts at other times of the year. Tentative dates for 2014 for these India Bird Counts are 13-16 June and 14-17 November.

We conduct a series of monthly eBirding Challenges, to encourage birders to look for birds all through the year and to share their sightings on a public platform.

Support

We offer support to groups who wish to conduct their own birding events using the platform provided by eBird. Previous examples of events we have supported include the Kerala Common Bird Monitoring Program, the Big Bird Day, and the Bangalore Bird Count. If your group is interested in conducting a bird listing or counting event, please get in touch!

We offer advice and support to location/regional groups who may wish to conduct more detailed projects on the distribution and abundance of their birds, monitored over time. Depending on your requirements, we can help with designing the project (based on your needs), with suggesting data collection formats and storage, and with the analysis and display of results. An example of a project we have supported in this way is the Mysore City Bird Atlas.

Information

We are working towards putting together a comprehensive set of resources

for anyone interested in bird monitoring. This will include a description of the various kinds of monitoring projects that could be done, some suggestions for how to decide between them, and step-by-step guides for how to carry out a monitoring project.

The eBird platform

In general, we encourage individual birders to use eBird to document their sightings. It often makes sense for groups running events and projects to similarly use eBird. However, for a few projects eBird may not be the best tool to use for bird surveys and monitoring. In such cases, we are happy to advise on the design and construction of a more customized system for data collection.
For more details here are the links:-

May 2014 eBirding Challenge

Bird Count India

April eBirders of the Month