Kerala Bird Atlas 2015-20: features, outcomes and implications of a citizen-science project

Citizen-science driven exercises (e.g. bird surveys) and online platforms (e.g. eBird) provide voluminous data on bird occurrence. However, the semi-structured nature of their data collection makes it difficult to compare bird distribution across space and time. Bird atlases are based on standardized surveys and describe the distribution of bird species over a predefined region and have fewer biases, and thus are better suited for use in research. The recently concluded Kerala Bird Atlas (henceforth KBA) is Asia's largest bird atlas in terms of geographical extent, sampling effort and species coverage. The entire state of Kerala was systematically surveyed twice a year during 2015-20 and over 0.3 million records of 380 species from 25,000 checklists were aggregated. The dataset was filtered and various metrics were estimated. A total of 915 cells were laid out for systematic surveys, of which 888 were surveyed in either or both the seasons - dry season (January-March) and wet season (July-September); 27 cells could not be surveyed in either of the seasons due to logistical constraints. However, this variation in sampling effort had a minimal effect on survey completeness. The slope of the species accumulation curve suggested near-complete species sampling in over 70% of the cells. After eliminating nocturnal and pelagic species, data from 361 species were analysed. Species count was higher in the dry season than in the wet season. Species richness (count) and evenness were higher in the northern and central districts than in the southern districts. High elevation regions of the southern Western Ghats were the largest contiguous areas lacking sufficient sampling. We found that most of the endemics were concentrated in the Western Ghats, but threatened species were as likely to occur along the coasts as in the Ghats. The KBA dataset is a valuable resource for testing various ecological hypotheses and suggesting science-backed conservation measures. KBA model could be replicated for similar atlases in other states or biogeographic regions of India.

Automated summary

Citizen-science driven exercises and online platforms provide abundant data on bird occurrence, but the semi-structured nature of their data collection poses challenges in comparing bird distribution. Bird atlases, based on standardized surveys, are more suitable for research. The Kerala Bird Atlas is the largest bird atlas in Asia, providing detailed information on bird distribution in Kerala.