Nepal has mobilised 400 bird experts, nature guides, wildlife photographers, and volunteers for its annual nationwide waterbird census, which began Saturday and continues until Magh 4.
The census is being conducted by Wetlands International in coordination with the Nepal Ornithological Union, with support from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN).
Waterbird surveys are underway across Nepal, encompassing over 80 sites in 18 major wetland areas, from Koshi in the east to Shuklaphanta in the west, and from the Tarai’s Jagdishpur Reservoir to the Himalayan Rara Lake.
Waterbirds rely on aquatic habitats for survival. Key habitats are monitored using fixed-distance counts to minimise disturbance.
Trained ornithologists and nature guides conduct the survey, using binoculars and spotting scopes to identify bird species by colour, structure, and calls, taking care to avoid double counting.
Nepal lies along the Central Asian Flyway, one of the world’s eight major migratory routes, making the country an important wintering and stopover site for migratory birds. The waterbird census is carried out simultaneously across the world during this period.
As winter sets in across the northern regions, birds migrate south to escape extreme cold and food shortages. Each year, waterbirds from Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, China, Mongolia, Europe, Korea, and the Tibetan region spend the winter in Nepal’s wetlands.
Declining wetland quality and area, along with disrupted migration routes, pesticide use, hazardous power lines, and illegal hunting, threaten wintering waterbird populations.
Nepal’s latest bird census results, to be released in April during Wildlife Week, will update the count from last year’s survey, which recorded 96,565 birds of 96 species across 78 sites in 18 locations. Nepal hosts 903 bird species, including over 150 winter visitors and 60+ summer migrants, and is home to 13 rare waterbird species, with common winter visitors like geese, ducks, waders, cormorants, and river terns.
