The 2^nd Bird Festival of Goa was held from 14^th to 17^th of January 2018. The event was organised by Goa Forest Department in association with Goa Tourism Development Corporation, Dept. of Tourism, Info Tech Corporation of Goa, and Goa Bird Conservation Network . The main event was held at Eco-tourism Complex , Hattipaul , Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary.

The event was formally inaugurated on 14/01/18 by Shri Manohar Parrikar, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa State in presence of Shri Narendra Sawaikar , Hon’ble MP, South Goa and Shri Isidore Fernandes, Hon’ble MLA, Canacona. A bird photography exhibition curated by GBCN containing 50 select photographs showcasing unique diversity of avi-fauna of Goa shot by Goan photographers. Besides this, the prize winning entries of photography competition were put on display.

During the inaugural function, the poster on Marine ecology developed by WWF Goa was unveiled. The Hon’ble Chief Minister expressed appreciation of Forest Department for organising such an event in the State and expressed hope that the festival shall serve its objectives to promote natures based tourism in the State./p>

Well known subject experts and ornithologist were invited to the special sessions including Shri. Vibhu Prakash on “Conservation of Vultures, Shri. Pratap Singh, IFS on “Recording Bird Calls”, Shri Sharad Apte on “Bird Calls”, Shri. Karthikeyan on “Organising Nature Camps – JLR experience”, Shri. Rohan Chakraborty on “Caricatures in wildlife conservation ” Shri. Shiva Shankar on “Pelagic Birds of Western Coast and Birds of Western Ghats” and Shri. Satish Pande on “Science behind Superstitious”. The registered delegated numbering 46 coming from Karnataka, Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand , Telangana & Goa even from SriLanka , China & USA registered for festival. Apart from them local volunteers and college students participated in the festival.

The programme included early morning and late afternoon nature trail trips for birds watching in specially developed trails conducted by experts ornithologists while talks and special sessions were held in the forenoon and afternoon . In the evening of 15th January., a cultural programme on Goan folk dances was presented by the local artist from Sristhal , Canacona Taluka.

On final day of the festival , a pelagic trip was conducted from Betul of Quepem taluka into Arabian Sea , in all about 60 delegates participated in the half day birding tour off the coast of South Goa.