Enter this one-of-a-kind feather library in Bengaluru

It started with a fewer feathers of an Indian silverbill that Esha Munshi had saved from 1 of her cats during the pandemic, backmost successful 2020. Esha, an designer by grooming and the laminitis of the Feather Library, which has conscionable added an highly uncommon Sooty Shearwater —the lone Indian specimen of this migratory seabird —to its collection, says, “I rescued the bird, but, successful fright, it mislaid a fewer feathers.” She remembers looking down astatine the feathers she held successful her hands, “smaller than my finger…so tiny and delicate,” and realised that she wanted to cognize much astir them. “I conscionable got funny and wanted to spot the formation feathers of each birds,” says the self-confessed ‘bird nerd’, who has been obsessed with birds since she spotted a black-crowned nighttime heron extracurricular the model of her bureau successful 2013.

She searched for much accusation astir feathers, but could not find it. So, she acceptable the thought speech and returned to her regular beingness successful Ahmedabad, practising architecture and pursuing the Cornell Lab’s ‘Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology’ course, an online certification people focusing connected avian biology.

On 1 specified trip, to the Rann of Kutch, she recalls telling the friends who had accompanied her, that she wanted to make a postulation of feathers. “I retrieve the date, September 9. In the morning, I discussed this, and that evening, I recovered a roadkill of a hoopoe. So, I took it arsenic a sign,” says Esha, who approached the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests soon aft to get support to cod vertebrate feathers.

Since backstage individuals are not permitted to cod oregon person taxidermy vertebrate trophies oregon adjacent feathers, she was asked to found a backstage spot and got support to papers and digitise the formation feathers of birds that had died naturally.

In November 2021, little than 2 months later, the Feather Library, a unsocial inaugural dedicated to documenting, identifying, and studying the formation feathers of Indian birds, was born. “I published the website astatine midnight connected November 15, which is besides my birthday,” says Esha, present an Honorary Curator of Birds astatine the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR), Bengaluru, wherever the carnal postulation of the Feather Library is presently housed.

“I created a website with 5 specimens, a prototype,” she says, adding that her co-founder was Sherwin Everett, who utilized to enactment astatine an carnal rescue centre called Jivdaya successful Ahmedabad. “We would cod the birds that did not past astatine Jivdaya and papers their formation feathers.”

Two months aft the launch, she formally discontinue architecture and poured her bosom and psyche into this initiative, deepening her expertise by studying further astatine the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “I already had friends determination due to the fact that of my annotation project. I told them that I had released thing similar this successful India, and wanted to travel and larn taxidermy and however to marque depository specimens,” says Esha.

On her instrumentality from Cornell, she had a gathering with ecologists Uma Ramakrishnan and Vivek Ramachandran astatine NCBS and decided to collaborate with the institute. “I shifted the full postulation present successful August 2022,” says Esha, who had collected astir 50-60 specimens backmost then.

Not lone is the Feather Library the lone 1 of its benignant successful India, but it is besides a unsocial inaugural globally, with lone Germany’s Featherbase and the United States’ The Feather Atlas undertaking a akin endeavour, says Esha, who underwent grooming successful feather microstructure astatine the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, earlier this year.

Today, it has grown to encompass feathers of astir 160 taxon of birds and astir 400 specimens housed successful the temperature-controlled probe collections installation astatine NCBS. Esha shows maine around, opening drawer aft drawer filled with wings, feathers and preserved full birds, adding that she present has support successful Karnataka and Gujarat to cod deceased animals for stuffing, not conscionable their feathers.

I perceive to her reel disconnected names, “barn owl, spotted owlet, Indian pitta, aureate oriole, coppersmith barbet, location crow, the Asian koel” until we yet scope the pièce de résistance: the Sooty Shearwater, which she received successful August this twelvemonth aft it died of earthy causes astatine a rescue centre successful Porbandar, Gujarat.

“It was a jackpot, actually,” she believes. “There is lone 1 different erstwhile grounds of a Sooty Shearwater successful India…a photographic grounds taken disconnected the seashore of Mangaluru successful Karnataka.”

Preserving these birds is simply a lengthy and meticulous process that requires sizeable patience and precision. “When I find a bird, it is frozen for 2 days to instrumentality attraction of basal biosafety, if determination are immoderate bacteria oregon viruses,” says Esha.

After filling a signifier signaling circumstantial details astir the bird, including taxon and specimen number, wherever and erstwhile the vertebrate was found, and the origin of its death, Esha takes immoderate basal measurements, “like weight, wingspan, magnitude of the bird, caput and beak width.”

Then, she performs the taxidermy of the bird, skinning, stuffing, sewing, and drying it earlier mounting it, with 1 helping stretched retired to grounds its signifier and assorted feathers. “Before pinning, I region idiosyncratic formation feathers, scan and fig them and support them successful the close order. And then, erstwhile everything is done, I upload it to the website.”

The feather room serves much than conscionable quenching Esha’s thirst to larn astir and cod vertebrate feathers. In her opinion, galore cardinal questions astir feathers stay unanswered due to the fact that determination are precise fewer researchers moving connected feathers worldwide.

“That is what makes it precise unsocial and niche,” she says, pointing retired that redeeming these feathers could assistance reply immoderate of these questions. “The anticipation is that someday, we tin grow crossed India and astatine slightest person 1 specimen of each Indian bird,” says Esha, who besides wants to someday alteration the postulation into an ornithology depository wherever specimen-based probe tin beryllium conducted.

“Having a vertebrate successful your manus allows you to fig retired truthful galore insignificant details, which you’ll ne'er beryllium capable to bash portion birdwatching. And determination is thing caller to larn from each bird.”