The India BirdRaces

Each team will consist of 04 (four) persons (no less, but there can be a maximum of 06 participants in some cases, primarily to accommodate more enthusiasts, and also because sometimes there are only a limited number of experienced birdwatchers to lead a team.

You are free to constitute your own team but must ensure at least one of you is a proficient birder, familiar with the region’s birdlife, and who can be team captain.

At the time of Registration (online in most venues now) please give a BirdName to your team. It has to be the name of some bird. There is no Registration Fee for any of the IndiaBirdRaces.

While we used to provide printed physical Logbooks to each team, however, in contemporary times with the eBird platform facilitating easy entry of your sightings, we have all team sighting reports/lists go in as a detail city-venue specific Checklist for the day. This BirdRace day checklist is a compilation of the entire day's sightings by all teams combined, after taking care of any erroneous and doubtful sightings.

Each team remains as a single unit for the entire day and up to the evening programme. The team may, if it so wishes, employ the services of a driver for their vehicle (if they should choose a site that involves driving). The driver may or may not be a bird-watcher. In fact, depending upon the sites chosen, please try & constitute your team in such a manner that at least one of you has ACCESS TO A VEHICLE.

The India BirdRaces have NO PRE-DETERMINED ROUTES or birding spots. A Team is free to choose its own route and site for the day.

Walk, Trek, Dive or Drive or even Fly as much as you may to a site or a cluster of sites. This Bird Race is a FULL DAY EVENT (surely, you’d agree the pot-holed roads and loads of other nuisances, including the fatigue factor, make night travel difficult in this region).

In every city, the IndiaBirdRace begins at dawn and ends at sun-down. Plan your day in such a manner as to converge at the evening venue for the get-together and dinner. Please note that the evening’s programme (at some of the venues) would get over close to 10:00 pm. Hopefully, you wouldn’t mind one groggy get-up on a Monday morning, for the love of our feathered birds.