Birdwatching is becoming increasingly popular in Nepal, contributing to biodiversity conservation through public engagement and ecological data collection.Despite its popularity, a lack of public participation and data-sharing practices affect record-keeping.Researchers say documentation provided by birdwatchers helps fulfill data gaps related to bird population and habitat.Birdwatching helps promote local destinations and generate economic activity, though Nepal as a birdwatching destination remains largely untapped.
KATHMANDU — As a child, Shankar Tiwari and his friends killed birds for fun around Chitwan National Park in central Nepal, where they grew up. Years later, a foreign guest at the hotel where Tiwari worked took him birdwatching and turned the hunter into a bird lover.
The striking yellow and black plumage and red eyes of the black-hooded oriole (Oriolus xanthornus), which he saw magnified through binoculars for the first time, sparked Tiwari’s lifelong passion for birds, he said. Today, the 57-year-old is one of Nepal’s leading birdwatching guides and a prominent member of the country’s growing birdwatching community that is contributing to bird conservation while promoting it as a tourism attraction.
