Sunday, April 26, 2009

Birds observed during March 2009

Sri Lanka Birds’, a citizen science programme to ensure people’s participation towards the conservation of birds, completed another successful month by the end of March 2009. This report provides an analysis of data entered by ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ members for the month. This analysis is based on the data downloaded on 14th April 2009.

Membership
New members 24
Total members 278
FOGSL warmly welcomes new members to the ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ community.

Observations
Total Number of Observations 1492
Number of Species 195
Number of Endemic Species 16
Number of Proposed endemic Species 7
Number of migrant species 38

Observations of Brahminy Starling, Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Yellow Wagtail and Malayan Night-heron are noteworthy records. Most significant observation recorded in the system was the sighting of Goliath Heron at Arugam Bay by Salindra Kasun Dayananda on 10th March. Goliath Heron was reported only in handful of occasions in Sri Lanka and therefore considered as a vagrant. Detailed report on this observation will be published shortly.

Nesting records
Number of observations 11
Number of species 9
Species (Black-rumped Flameback, Brown Hawk-owl, Brown-backed Needletail, Common Hoopoe, House Crow, Purple-rumped Sunbird, Red-vented Bulbul, Spotted Dove, White-bellied Drongo)
Two other species i.e. Drongo Cuckoo and Pheasant-tailed Jacana were reported in breeding stages other than nesting.

Mostly recorded species (No: of observations)
House Crow (62)
Red-vented Bulbul (59)
White-bellied Drongo (52)
Yellow-billed Babbler (51)
Common Tailorbird (48)

Top five users (No: of observations)
Newton Jayawardane (660)
Rienzie Fernando(377)
Chandanie Wanigatunge (163)
Salindra Kasun Dayananda (122)
Sandun Perera (101)

A total of 34 locations were visited during March by ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ members. Highest number of observations was made at Ragama (428) as in many previous months.

Current statistics describing the number of field visits, number of observations and bird species, as well as the number of users registered in the system, are displayed on the login page of ‘Sri Lanka Birds’ - www.worldbirds.org/srilanka .

FOGSL highly appreciates the contributions of members towards the conservation of birds through this initiative.

Friday, April 17, 2009

WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY 2009 - Barriers to migration

Are you fascinated by the phenomenon of bird migration? Are you concerned about the threats migratory birds are facing during their migration?

Then come and join thousands of others around the world in the upcoming World Migratory Bird Day celebration taking place on 9-10 May 2009!

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is a global initiative to raise awareness for the need to conserve all migratory birds around the world. The theme for this year's WMBD is "Barriers to migration".

To learn more about migratory birds, World Migratory Bird Day and more, visit http://www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/.
World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is an annual event, which was celebrated worldwide in over 60 countries in 2008. It was initiated by the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (UNEP/AEWA) in collaboration with the global Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) - two international environmental treaties administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). World Migratory Bird Day was created to raise awareness for the need to protect all migratory birds and their habitats throughout the world.

Events organised by FOGSL to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day, will be notified soon.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Born to Travel - BirdLife's Flyways Campaign

BirdLife International recently launched a new campaign to create awareness on migratory birds under the BirdLife's Flyways Programme. To learn more about this "Born to Travel" campaign, visit http://www.borntotravelcampaign.com/.