At a birding walk he led in Pimpri-Chinchwad last week, Arpit Choudhary helped participants recall the name of the blue-and-orange bird they had spotted, saying, “Think of the beer brand by the same name. ” They committed the kingfisher to memory.
Earlier this year, he made it to India Book of Records for the most birds identified by a child: 763 in 31.45 minutes. The second edition of Young Birders’ Month (YBM), this Nov, has had 10 events co-led by young birders. Last Nov saw 205 events. Arpit, a YBM participant in 2025, is an event organiser in 2026, having gained confidence and experience by conducting bird walks through the year with his father Akshay. The 12-year-old exhibited images of 100 birds, including the critically endangered sociable lapwing and the endangered forest owlet, at a YBM event in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar last week. Kaivalya has identified 360 species over three years of birding and targets 1,000 by Grade 10.
Because it lays its eggs in another bird’s nest, the koel,. Look up the YBM event schedule on https://youngbirders.in/events/ You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Mumbai | Silver Rate in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai | Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Petrol Price in Mumbai | Diesel Price in Mumbai | CNG Price in Mumbai | LPG Price in Mumbai Stay updated with the latest Mumbai news.
Nov was chosen because it marks several milestones: the birth anniversary of Salim Ali, the “Birdman of India” (130th today, Nov 12); Children’s Day on Nov 14; and the annual arrival of migratory birds in several parts of India. “So far, 119 events have been submitted,” says Garima Bhatia, Programme Manager at Early Bird, who expects the count to rise once Diwali fever peters out. “I’ve photographed birds at national parks, sanctuaries and gardens,” he says, including Himayat Bagh, the 17th-century Mughal garden beside which he grew up and where he first started birding. “I learnt both birding and photography from my father, who learnt it from YouTube and social media,” says the home-schooled Kaivalya, whose survey of the flora and fauna of Himayat Bagh won a gold medal last year at Nisarga Mitra Olympiad, an environmental literacy competition. Events organised by children have several advantages, Bhatia says: “Children relate to peer leaders far more naturally than to adults; they bring uninhibited enthusiasm and often notice fine details in nature that adults overlook; and parents, teachers and community members turn up enthusiastically to support young leaders, building stronger intergenerational bonds around local nature conservation. “On a bird walk at Pune’s Vetal Tekdi, I make them aware not only of the area’s bird life but of the human-led threats to its habitat,” says Samay, who, with a friend, recently recorded 105 species during a 12-hour birding marathon on the tekdi (hill). Young birders are curious and attentive in ways adults are not, he says: “Older birders are only interested in the perfect shot; young birders ask more questions.
Arpit is eight years old. YBM is a month-long calendar of events, from walks to webinars and exhibitions, conducted by children, youth, schools and birding and nature groups across the country. Spearheaded by Early Bird (an initiative of Nature Conservation Foundation) in partnership with WWF-India, it aims to foster ecological literacy through birding. The numbers bear out youth interest in birding. He keeps the walks lively with quick facts and spot quizzes: “Koel, coucal, crow, parakeet: what’s the odd one out? Picking the odd one out was harder in Kaivalya Borde’s collection. Fourteen-year-old Samay Srivastava wants to draw young people to birds, both to share his passion and to advocate for conservation. Having conducted a bird walk as part of YBM, he plans to host a youth birder mentoring programme next week, with an online webinar on birding basics followed by trails at Pashan Lake and Vetal Tekdi. Download the TOI App.
The inaugural edition last year had just one.