The word ‘ornithologist’ often evokes the mental image of someone meticulously identifying and classifying birds by their Latin nomenclature while peering through their thick-lensed binoculars. In stark contrast to this stereotype stood Dr Salim Ali, the iconic birder and conservationist, fondly remembered today as the Birdman of India. “I am thoroughly unmoved by what name one ornithologist chooses to dub a bird that is familiar to me,” the veteran ornithologist wrote in a letter to a colleague in 1956.

Bird watchers at a trail in Borivali. Pics Courtesy/Raju Kasambe