Project summary

For six months, hundreds of wild birds—from restless Purple-rumped sunbirds to cautious peacocks to very judgemental jungler babblers who question my cleanliness while dirtying their water themself—have visited a single 1×1.5 ft spot we kept food at in the Shevaroy foothills daily.

Aesthetic shops say birds need expensive, painted, human-like houses. The birds proved otherwise: they don't care about human decor, only reliable food and natural safety. I’m expanding this proven spot into a 10×10×10 ft shelter with 24/7 food and running water, nesting materials, and simple local terracotta's.

I have also rehabbed wild birds (with forest department's regular updates and intimation, keeping these as pets is a crime in India), along with training in avian dosing, and know wildlife protection act 1972. It will be in open air and not a closed shelter/sanctuary.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Provide regular sustainable food, water and nesting materials for hundreds of birds that visit here daily.

Through slow transition from existing setup towards the new setup area, along with observing the eating patterns, preferences and habits to better refine by doing more of what worked. Real life birdies rarely follow textbook patterns, so understanding how these specifically behave is the way to go.

Aka: These prefer parle g biscuits over actual nutrient pellets meant for them. Will totally judge you if you don't change the water and they somehow end up being soaked, but will totally get dripping wet in rain and demand dry biscuits.

But at the end of the day, this just prove how much there is a lack of food meant for them and with the upcoming summer predicted to be brutal due to El Nino, I want to ensure food isn't something they are concerned about.

How will you know it worked?

Birds visiting is a solved problem due to the previous months of effort, them spotting what each component is for and getting accustomed to the pattern and internalizing that not just food but also water, and other materials along with enrichment toys being available and safe to explore.

I remember the hyper cautiousness of them when they are eating in a spot when a predator could catch them without any time to flee. Seeing only healthy level of cautiousness but feeling safe enough to not just basic necessity but also curious and safe enough to explore will the marker.

How will this funding be used?

• Raw materials (wood, wires, clothes, terracotta, ropes,...)

• Travel (sourcing the materials, the vehicle to carry the woods, etc)

• I handle the design aspect of it in consulting with appropriate field experts as required. So heavy funding won't be spent on thinking through these.

• Fees for iron grill man, along with woodworker as they set it up by guidance.

• Fees for a local craftsperson specialized in clothes, leather and wires for enrichment tools in the aviary.

• A portion of the fund along with anything remaining would be used to fund the food and water for the birds.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I handle the core direction, design and overseeing. I also plan to consult with experts as necessary. I have field experience in rehabbing wild birds, so I understand their physiology, eating habits and also their stressors and lifestyle.

My previous projects can be better described through

1. Is my perspective and toolset a good fit for this problem

2. Does my work ethics align with the kind of people tackling the problem? Is there a fit on collaborators too?

3. Do I find this fascinating enough?

than trying to define them through a single domain.

Please see: https://isrl.in/google-scholar-if-it-worked/ for my open source research publications,
https://github.com/isrl-research/sandbox-research/discussions/4 for how I collaborate and my ethics, https://isrl-research.github.io/ for the open research lab I led and https://isrl.in/pausing-isrl-respecting-the-work-supporters-and-oneself/ for why I paused it.

TL;DR: I have worked across web accessibility, perceptual color science, wildlife rehabiliation, data science/ml, computational law and nutrition, immunology - food allergens, nutrition science, product design,...

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Birds not visiting is not likely to be one of them, we have observed periods of lower count few times an year and it's the natural pattern.

But the reason would be any of the objects or the surrounding failing the hypothesis it was placed there with, and the solution would be observe and refine them as we go.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

50K INR (~$528 USD) for the open research lab I said about, from FOSS United Foundation through Nagarathna Memorial Grant