Have you ever rejoiced on seeing a bird? Have you experienced a sense of elation on being able to identify a bird? Have you dropped everything you were doing to go see the bird whose call you just heard? Then you know what the joy of birding is all about!

Birding as a hobby is a great stress buster. It teaches you to be patient,  mindful and live in the moment. It teaches you to have great respect for Mother Nature. Birds are so beautiful that sighting them can send you into raptures. My father introduced me to the amazing world of birds when I was a kid. His rich experience of birding since his childhood days was awe inspiring. Dad could identify most birds by their call!

Each of our birding trips has been amazing. On my first birding trip with Dad, we sighted a Racket Tailed Drongo! I still remember having jumped with joy! Since then, I’ve sighted many birds including the Painted Storks and the Cormorants pictured here. I’ve also come to realise that you don’t necessarily need to go birding to find birds. They are all around you. You just need to have a keen sense of observation to find them both in the real jungle and the concrete ones!

The Great Indian Hornbill in the picture above was a rare sighting on one of our trips. This bird is ‘near threatened’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species. This is because they are hunted for their ivory casque and their flesh is believed to be medicinal.

Some of us are fortunate enough to live in areas with a green cover which gives us the gift of having birds in our backyards. It is indeed a blessing. I have the joy of waking up each day to the melody of the Bulbuls, the Mynahs and the Barbets. They brighten my day. But this is unimaginable in most bigger towns and cities.

We all know that trees are being cut and the natural habitat of birds is being destroyed. We all need to do our bit to conserve what we have. If we don’t do so, birds will  be a thing of the past, seen only in books and videos. Our future generations will be robbed of this great joy. If each one of us, plants at least one tree, we can make a difference. Let’s make a difference!