Birds of the city: Avifaunal diversity in Delhi
- Lalitha
- Dec 20, 2025
- 2 min read
How the highly polluted and populous city continues to be the second most bird-rich capital in the world?
Birds are an omnipresent lifeform wherever you go. In the most unlikely place on the planet, you will likely find a bird! I am probably sharing this lack of information with many others, especially in urban areas. Biodiversity in cityscapes does not occur intuitively in the common imagination. However, to much amusement, with the rise in urbanization, biodiversity also adapts to shifting land-use patterns—from clear-running waters to sewage dumps.
With its varied ecosystems, ranging from the gentle hill slopes of the Aravalli to the shallow floodplains of the Yamuna, Delhi offers a rich diversity of life that is often overlooked. Interspersed with the concrete, these patches support a diverse array of avian life throughout the year, hosting both migrant and resident birds.
Considered the undisputed birding paradise, avian life in the city never fails to delight its admirers. From water birds like shelduck, pintail, and teal that migrate over thousands of kilometers from Eurasia and North America to roost and nest. The city welcomes over 140 migratory birds in a year. The other more than 200 common yet less famous resident birds, like barbets, egrets, cormorants, and lapwings, bring the total count to over 350 species that treat the birders with their sonorous calls and vivid colors.
However, well-adapted to human presence, the urban birds inhabit the multitude of landscapes that overlay the city. Fragmented green spaces outside parks, nutrient-rich sewage lanes, water bodies or even landfills, the birds use them all. Not to mention the sizable human provisioning that the birds ably exploit to make a living in the city.
An explorative exercise to validate this is to record the bird life in your own neighborhood. Begin with the well-known birds that are easier to spot, listen to their call, the colors, and their flying patterns. As you advance, a quick surfing on the internet will reveal many birding guides for an amateur birder.
To me, beyond maintaining a checklist, birder endeavors are a desire to cherish nature, a nature that is everywhere. It felt like a superpower that instantly reminded me of my shared surroundings. Whether I struggle to shut my mind chatter or unwind from a chaotic day, a movement from the tree or a flyby bird draws my quick attention, as if letting me know of my wandering thoughts. And I have left no stone unturned to share this power with most others I know!
I quite often receive messages asking me to identify the bird or their call recordings from the tree outside one's office building or from their neighborhood, flybys, or those that come to peck the leftover food from their windows or terrace.
As the city battles for a gasp of breath and pressures to urbanize rapidly, birding is a quiet act of noticing our surroundings, in defiance of ignorance and neglect. It is an effort to acknowledge our co-existence and preserve the life around us.
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