Watching Birds During Lockdown

Kids glued in front of the TV or playing video games all day – this has become a familiar scene for most families stuck at home during the global lockdown. And now that the home quarantine is all set to continue, there is no surety when kids would get a chance to go outdoors. One family in Indore, India though has found a perfect way to connect with nature despite the home quarantine.

Six years old Reva, 10 years old Parth, and their parents Vibhav and Shachi are spending their days not watching Netflix, but with the lively birds outside, thanks to the beautiful public garden right across the road. Taking it a step further, the kids are also taking pictures, and drawing the birds they see, after trying to learn more about them through books.

This guest post is by Parth and his younger sister Reva sharing their wonderful art and thoughts about their new found love for bird-watching and how it is easy to open doors to nature even if you are locked indoors. There is a lesson for us all here not only about the wondrous world of urban wildlife that we seldom fail to see in our daily hustle and bustle, but also about turning a gloomy lockdown into a family adventure! Do read!    

The Lockdown

Due to the covid -19 pandemic lockdown we were stuck at home in Indore, India. Luckily for us, there is large garden opposite my Nani’s house, with lot of big trees. One day we spotted a Grey Hornbill. We got an idea that, “There might be more birds!” But soon, we forgot about it. 

The Great Sighting

After many days our grandad spotted a Magpie Robin on the roof of our house. My father said, “Let’s try and find more kinds of birds”. So the next day we woke up early morning at 6 am, took our binoculars, and went to the terrace of the house and tried to spot birds. We spotted 2 fantastic birds but we didn’t know which birds were these. Papa remembered that he had a bird book in his father’s house (my grandpa) which was- Birds of India by-Salim Ali. We found out that the birds we had seen were the Coppersmith Barbet and Shikra.

We are now a team of three birdwatchers – My father, my sister Reva and myself.

The equipment we have is: NIKON camera, binoculars, Book of Indian Birds by SALIM ALI, Colour pencils, and a Notebook.

Here are photos and drawings of some of the birds we saw,

#1 Brahminy Starling

A colourful bird, small in size. Also known as the Brahmini Myna.

#2 Coppersmith Barbet

A beautiful bird with slight red on the chest, a yellow face and green under the chest with black eyes.

#3 Shikra

Big bird – the size of a falcon. Golden brown in colour with magnificent orange eyes. We see it every morning without fail.

My Learnings

I learnt some important things about birdwatching. 

1.Be patient and keep calm

2.Don’t get too excited and don’t make noise when spotting a new bird 

3.Never run towards a bird

4.Be attentive

5.Mornings are the best to see birds

6.A group of trees brings many species of birds – so if you want to watch birds, grow trees

#4 Alexandrine Parakeet

#5 Black Drongo

List of birds we spotted –

-Dove

-Shikra

-Red Vented Bulbul

-Coppersmith Barbet

-Black Drongo

-Magpie Robin

-Green Sunbird 

-Purple Sunbird

-Golden Oriole

-Alexandrine parakeet

-Female Koel

-Brahminy Starling

-Indian Robin

-Brown Rockchat

-Red-wattled Lapwing

-Common Babblers

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Reva’s Interview (JUNIOR COMPANION)

Q1) What do you like about the birds we see ?

Ans) I like bird watching because the birds are very colorful ,and they are very beautiful.

Q2) What do you think of the idea of making a blog on bird watching during  lockdown ?

Ans) I liked the idea a lot,  because the lockdown was very boring. That’s why I liked the idea.

Q3)Tell me your favourite bird.

Ans) My favourite bird is the Golden Oriole , because of the bright colour.

#6 Golden Oriole

A bright yellow bird with black wings and black tail.

Q4) How do you identify birds that you see?

Ans) I can identify birds only when they sit in one place. Otherwise, it is very hard. Not every time I can identify even if they sit in one place. Sometimes, I need to use binocs. 

After we are done watching, we search for the birds we saw. We have a book. It is a bird book. The name is Birds of India by Salim Ali. Once we find a bird, we read about it, and also find out if we saw a male or female. 

Later, we draw the bird in our sketchbook, and colour it.

Q5) What is the most fun part of this activity?

Ans) Looking at new birds. I like this because we get to colour new birds, and put it on the blog. I get excited about this. 

The Story Ahead

In the blog we do not take photos from the internet we photograph them ourselves and then sketch them, colour them and post them. To check our posts see on Instagram Vibhav Nuwal. We keep on looking for different kinds of birds everyday, when we see one we get very excited.

About

Parth is 10 years old, and a student of Class V. He is a budding photographer.

Reva is 6 years old, and a student of Class I. She loves to draw and paint.

Both of them study at Shikshantar in Gurgaon, India.