Stella Maris Campus ranked No. 2 on eBird Checklist Leaders list for 2025

This is kindergarten material for any patch birder. One cannot collect as many bird species as one wants in one’s chosen area. Each patch has inherent factors that control – restrict, if you like – the bird diversity there. And patches vary depending on the degree of restriction imposed on them by natural and anthropogenic factors. Fairly natural.

In light of this reality, some patches are lagging behind in terms of species counts on platforms like eBird. But they don’t need to remain invisible. The willpower of people associated with the area (its inhabitants and habitats) can ward off adverse luck in a different way – by diligently preparing checklists of birds found in the area every day. If multiple checklists arrive, they may occupy a corner of the spotlight – that is, the checklist corner.

Checklist for Chennai in 2025 How to read list of leaders December 27 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Through perseverance and even a kind of humility, Stella Maris College has made it to number two on eBird’s Checklist Leaders Roll for Chennai in 2025.

In terms of species diversity, the Stella Maris complex has no patches on the Adayaru estuary. But it is chasing the leader, who surprisingly is Adayaru Estuary.

At around 2.15pm on 27 December, as this edition was speeding to press, the Stella Maris campus stood with 442 checklists for 2025, while only Adayaru Estuary was ahead of it with 451 checklists – see screenshots accompanying this report.

The culture of e-birding has become so ingrained in the college that it has not spared the campus bird count even during the pandemic. Campus Bird Count 2021 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“This is elementary, my dear Watson” – You may not have very many bird species on your doormat, but you can record and report the small number of those that do with a regularity and alacrity that could put the sun, the brightest sphere in the sky, to shame.

Seeing the same group of bird species over and over again is enough to understand the essence of all species, even those continents away and never visiting your garden. Kalpana Jayaraman, who retired as the Head of the Department of Zoology at Stella Maris College (Autonomous) in May 2025, touches on two reasons for the Stella Maris campus being on the eBird Checklist Leaders list.

First, the college started counting birds on the campus in 2013. But after two years of forgettable results, the initiative gained momentum in 2015 – well, the wings of an albatross – the imagination recalls. Key features of the initiative include training students on how to bird, where to watch birds (around campus) and where to post birding results (pronounced e-Bird).

The culture of e-birding has become so ingrained in the college that it has not stopped counting birds on campus even during the pandemic.

Kalpana says students are encouraged to prepare several checklists together in groups of three or four. Each group is also asked to e-bird at multiple locations throughout the campus, allowing more pairs of eyes to be trained on each section, and no bird is left out of sight. The current head, SA Vidya “is a regular patch birder, birds from the campus are seen almost every day, Imagination. Hence, the baton is always passed.

According to Kalpana, the second reason is that the college has been offering a certificate course – Essentials of Birdwatching – for the last five years. It is open to students of all departments. Among other things, it impresses on students that citizen-science data about birds can aid species research and conservation.

And as Kalpana suggests, these factors clearly make a huge difference.