Introducing the youngest Birder I know || A peek into the travails of my nephew

After doing a lot of research on dogs, 7-year-old Nishu got interested in birds. This happened when he noticed some colorful birds roaming around his garden. He loves to help his mom in the garden and during one of the weekends in winters he noticed some colorful birds he had never seen. He started a dialogue with his mom about birds and how they survive in cities like Delhi. And the agenda for next weekend was finalized. The idea was to put some pots filled with water so that more birds visit them :) ... Of course, these pots were daily filled with water and at times multiple times during the day, especially during summers. All this encouraged Nishu to know more about birds and other related stuff.

Birding is essentially an observation of birds as a recreational activity. Watching birds is very addictive. Birders are usually blessed with amazing listening power and this is the  very first step of discovering birds around them. For any birder it's important to notice these sounds to be able to identify the birds or at least the type of bird, so that you can act accordingly. Birders are always excited to see new birds, but they never lose an opportunity to watch birds doing various activities. It's also important to have the right set of equipment with you to observe these birds without disturbing them.

Nishu also loves travelling and especially with everyone in family - His Mom and Dad, Nana and Nani, Dada and Dadi, Masi & Chhote Nana. And his favorite vehicle to travel is Tempo traveller, which has enough place to fit every family member and comfortable enough to have fun while travelling. He always carries his Nikon Coolpix camera, binoculars, and telescope. Whenever we start talking about the next trip, Jim Corbett is his first preference and second is any hill station. He loves long-tailed birds like Yellow-Billed Blue Magpie, which are usually found in hilly regions. The above photograph shows Nishu with his Mom & Dad at Okhla Bird Sanctuary in Delhi during winters. 

Travelling to new places and meeting colorful wild wings are favourite activities of Nishant. Now many of the birds visit his garden, especially in morning when he leaves for the school. 

Birds are very useful for environmental education and awareness. Birds easily transmit values such as respect for nature and the knowledge about fragility of ecosystems. It's always good to have nature lovers around you who teach you to respect various aspects of preserving nature most organically. Gradually we have seen that many of Nishu's friends have started following him as a Birder. Some of them have put water pots for birds in their gardens too. It seems that all of them discuss birds in school and many of their paintings show birds in different forms - flying through clouds, drinking water in a river, laying eggs on top of air-conditioner etc. It's very interesting to listen to their tales about birds. Pigeon is one of the common birds they see and draw in their paintings. 

After an inspiration from Nishu and his friends, I also tried few sketches with birds as one of the main subjects.

Nishu loves going to the Zoo as well. He loves meeting most of the animals there but tend to spend more time around birds & notice their actions. With time, we have also started observing birds and now it feels that birds are far more active than most of the animals. And they demonstrate special behavior towards other birds.

Nishu has a theory that the more colors you have in the garden, the more colorful birds will visit you. This theory worked for him. He is very much into gardening as well and knows how to take care of different types of plants in various seasons. Recently Nishu encouraged his mom and masi to do something special for his friends who also want to have tiny gardens in their apartments. Here is a link which shares more about the 'Pot a Plant' activity on day before Holi Festival.

While compiling this post, I realized that Birding is one of the passion that Nishu has and there are various things that relate him to the nature. Thanks Kissan for this brilliant idea to compile a post.

The more we travel with Nishu, me and my wife know more about birds and hence it's becoming one of our hobbies as well. For the last few years, we have started tracking birding events in Northern states of India and also try to join different birding activities happening around us. This has helped us appreciate these flying creations of nature and care more about the way things are changing around us. Nishu's passion has not only inspired us, but also many of his friends and their parents. 

Thanks Kissan for inspiring me to share about Nishu and his love for nature.

This is a winning post. Updating below image on 16th June'14 -