Wildlife and Environment Conservation Society had published a checklist of the birds of Amravati district in 2010 which included 341 birds species found in Amravati district including the forested areas like Pohara-Malkhed Reserve Forest, Mahendri Reserve Forest (now an IBA) and Melghat Tiger Reserve. In the last 5–6 years, after the publication of the checklist in 2010, WECS carried out several bird related programs like bird surveys, Sálim Ali Bird Counts, Asian Waterbird Census, Common Bird Monitoring Programme, Backyard Bird Count and also executed research projects such as on the Critically Endangered Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) with Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, Owls and Owlet study project in Melghat with Raptor Research and Conservation Foundation, Mumbai, Hornbill project, grassland birds study programs, bird habitat development program, Satpuda bird survey etc.
Every year WECS organizes bird related events like bird watching camps and bird festival for students and nature lovers. In 2013, WECS successfully organized the state level 26th Maharashtra Pakshimitra Sammelan. Due to incessant work and exploration by the bird watchers of WECS, as many as 30 new species were added to the checklist of birds of Melghat Tiger Reserve. With these additions the checklist of Melghat went upto 295 from the previous 265.
For of areas outside Melghat, among the new sightings were Long-billed Plover (Charadrius placidus) and Hume’s Lark (Calandrella acutirostris) which were the first reports from the Maharashtra state. Besides these many birders of Amravati district had reported some important and new sightings of birds for the district, thus taking the bird checklist of the district to 392 from the previous of 341 species. A revised edition of the checklist of Amravati district is being published considering the addition of more than 50 previously unrecorded species and the many changes in status and distribution of the species. In this revised checklist, we have also included information regarding sub-species of some birds which are found in Amravati district. The number of threatened species of birds has gone up from the previous 21 to 34 species now, and many birds were uplisted in the threatened category in the IUCN Red List, which should be taken as a warning bell by the birders and get alerted over the problem.
The current checklist of birds of Amravati district provide the independent information of sightings of birds from Melghat Tiger Reserve (MT), Pohara-Malkhed Reserve Forest & around Amravati (PM) and Mahendri Reserve Forest (MF) with information on their status. The checklist also includes information about birdwatching places and an updated map of the district. It also provides a format of field data card which would be very useful to amateur birdwatchers.