Episode 17: About Striated Caracaras with Jonathan Meiburg
This episode is about striated caracaras, or rather, one man’s obsession with them. The man in question is Jonathan Meiburg who is a musician, author and bird lover. In 1833, a young Charles Darwin was astonished by a strange animal he met in the...
Episode 16: How to attract birds to your garden– with Shubha Bhat
Visit the home of Shubha Bhat and you will find many birds enjoying birdbaths in her garden and its surroundings. An avid birder, Shubha has spoken about backyard birding in many forums including the Bangalore Bird Day, Manipal Bird Day and others. Her work has been...
Episode 15: Nest Boxes and Birding Through Time with J. N. Prasad
JN Prasad has been a keen naturalist and birdwatcher for the last 4 decades. Associated closely with the WWF-India Nature Clubs of India movement since its inception, he went on to co-found Merlin Nature Club, which became the cradle of learning for many of Bangalore’s most enthusiastic naturalists.
More recently, continuing the passion Dr. George had for nest boxes, especially for cavity nesters like Magpie-Robins, that are facing a huge challenge to find space to breed, he has started the Gubbi Goodu network of volunteers who build nest boxes for sparrows and other birds.
Episode 14: Data science in birding: the ebird experiment
Do you want to become a reviewer for ebird? Which bird is the logo of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology? Do you think sparrow populations are declining? What abour vireos? Can you “rent” land from farmers to help shorebirds? In this fascinating episode, we talk to Christopher Wood, who heads ebird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Ashwin Viswanathan who is part of Bird Count India and NCF. Over one billion birders use ebird. How did it become this global behemoth? Hint, it wasn’t driven by America. How does ebird track and help avian populations, migration and mapping birds. How do different countries use it, and is India really the “global custodian” of so many species including the Common Rosefinch, Bar-headed Geese, or Blythe’s Reed Warbler?