World Photography Day: Click to save birds

“During one of our bird walks we found bar-headed geese near the backwaters of Gandipet. One of the photographers uploaded the photos that he clicked and we later found that one of these birds had a tag around its neck. After uploading it online we found out that this bird had travelled close to 4,000 km. They were tagged by a university in Central Asia... imagine we got all this information from a single shot,” says Shafaatulla, honorary secretary of the Birdwatchers Society of Andhra Pradesh.

Clicking photos not just helps catalogue birds but also creates awareness of their habitats and that in turn pushed people to save the environment. “Take our group, Hyderabad Birding Pals; what started off as a passion for birds where we also clicked their photos is now helping us organise monthly clean-up drives. When we started photographing birds, we found that their habitats were decreasing, so we started monthly drives where we clean up lakes and other areas, all for the birds,” says Rajeev Khandelwal, core member of Hyderabad Birding Pals.

Shafaatulla adds, “Now, we are not just able to catalogue birds, but clicking photos have also helped us identify new species and even save their habitats.”

Some of the birds that people have spotted are extremely rare. “Asian paradise fly catcher, mottled wood owl, desert wheatear and Indian pitta are some of the rare birds that we have spotted. By clicking their photos we understand the kind of habitat that these birds require and so we started saving these places,” explains Harikrishna Adepu of Hyderabad Birding Pals.