Dr.Pankaj Maheria and Dr.Anand Patel were roommates during their MBBS at Baroda Medical College in 1995 have been fast friends since then. At present, Dr.Pankaj Maheria is working as Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur- Patan and Dr.Anand Patel is working as CMO at SMIMER Medical College,Surat.Both of themhave been photographing wildlife since past several years.
Most of us have taken up wildlife photography as a hobby, some of us have just started and some of us have been working for years.But we all remain restricted to our local areas due to lack of networking. We do not know many birders from different areas with diverse avian species. We might come across someone when we are visiting a birding location, even whatsapp/call them for new bird sighting, tips etc. but still the family like bonding and the sense of community with a common interest was lacking.
To fill this void,a Whatsapp group "Bird Watchers of Gujarat" was created on 18/11/2014 by Dr.Pankaj Maheria with less than 20 members. Subsequently, Dr.Anand Patel created a Facebook Group "Bird Watchers of Gujarat".Since then, we have grown to a family of around 740+ members.The main purpose of these social platformsis to network between persons from different geographical locations, share knowledge and get information related to birding for our next visit to that place.
In November 2015, Dr. Pankaj Maheria and Dr. Anand Patel decided to create a website, which contains all information and data about birds seen in Gujarat. This Database has been created by the 'Birds of Gujarat' to bring together photographs of as many bird species from the Gujarat state of India as possible.We hope this will provide both a useful tool for researchers and a splendid collection of photographs for anyone wishing to browsethrough the rich diversity of beautiful birds seen in Gujarat.
We have attempted to provide Gujarati names of the birds along with the scientific and popular English names. We have put in our best efforts to get Gujarati name of all species seen in Gujarat using books and other sources to find the Gujarati name of birds and will continue to do so. Special Thanks to Nirav Pomal and Dilipsinh Chudasma for providing image of Grey Hypocolius for logo.Special Thanks to Hiren Joshi and Ghanshyam Patel for creating our logo.Greater Flamingo is Gujarat's State bird but Grey Hypocolius is the only bird sighted exclusively in Gujarat.So we had selected Grey Hypocolius is in our website's logo.
Our motto is to make large, High Quality photographic record for our next generation regarding all species sighted in Gujarat, and Union Territory of India came in Gujarat, especially for some endangered species.
All images in this Database have been provided by the photographers free-of-charge in furtherance of the aims of the BOG. The BOG is very grateful for their contributions. The photographers retain the copyright to their images. If you wish to use these photos for any purpose, you must obtain the photographers permission first.If you have photographs which you are willing to contribute to the BOG Image Database, please the photographs to email [email protected]. Images should be of species which are seen in the Gujarat Region and Union Territory of india in Gujarat.
Corrections: To report an error, please email [email protected] If suggesting a misidentification, please crosscheck your facts and give references for the suggested changes. Please mention species, photographer, date and place. With newly-uploaded images, please allow 24-hours for our in-house checking process.
Team 'Birds of Gujarat'
1 October 2016
