Episode 68: Delhi birds with Sudhir Vyas

This episode is about the birds of Delhi.
Delhi and its neighbourhoods, with its variety of habitats and landscapes, is remarkable for the wealth and diversity of its avifauna. It is a true haven for bird lovers, home to an astonishing array of over 470 captivating bird species. Get ready for an enchanting adventure with Sudhir Vyas's delightful book, "The Birds of the Delhi Area," which is the ultimate guide to unlocking the secrets of these feathered wonders! This book has been edited by Anita Mani under Indian Pitta- India's first imprint dedicated to birds.

Bio:
With over 50 years of bird watching experience, Sudhir Vyas, a former career diplomat, possesses an intimate understanding of Delhi's avian inhabitants. His expertise shines through numerous articles and studies on ornithology in the Delhi area. He is also the author of a monograph featured in the esteemed scholarly journal Indian Birds. In his book, Vyas delves into the broader aspects of birdlife, unraveling their habitats, and distribution, and contextualizing their presence in Delhi and its neighbourhood, covering an area of about 100 km around the capital, accessible in a day’s outing from the city. This comprehensive book reflects our current knowledge of bird status, including changes observed over decades. An invaluable resource for the rapidly growing community of bird watchers in Delhi and beyond, it explores the diverse avifauna of the region.

Accompanying Vyas's words are the breathtaking photographs of by a number of bird photographers, including by Amit Sharma, a passionate wildlife and bird photographer, whose images comprise the bulk of the pictures that illustrate the book and bring the birds and their varied habitats to life, as it were. His lens has captured the rarest gems of Delhi's birdlife, and of special interest is the fact that most of these birds were photographed in the Delhi area itself, except for a very few.