scholarly journals The Mid-Winter Assemblage And Diversity Of Bird Populations At Patlakhawa Protected Forest, Coochbehar, West Bengal, India

Ring ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asitava Chatterjee ◽  
Shuvadip Adhikari ◽  
Anandamay Barik ◽  
Subhra Kumar Mukhopadhyay

ABSTRACT We compared avian community structure of six contrasting habitat types at Patlakhawa Protected Forest of Dooars of West Bengal. During three weeks of the mid-winter studies 154 bird species representing 41 families were recorded. Of the 154 recorded species, 22 were observed in grasslands, 22 in swamp forest, 46 in riverine forest, 52 at miscellaneous plantation areas, 43 at forest edges and 51 at wetlands. The Shannon-Wiener general diversity indices varied among the habitats and ranged from 2.323 to 3.458. Richness (5.813-11.410), evenness (0.406-0.641) and dominance (0.042-0.128) indices also varied considerably among the study locations. The highest diversity, the lowest dominance and a very high evenness were characteristics of miscellaneous plantations. Grasslands showed highest evenness and considerably high species diversity. The lowest avian evenness and diversity were recorded in wetlands and swamp forests. Insectivorous birds were most numerous (53), followed by carnivorous (40), omnivorous (29) and frugivorous (15) birds. Winter appeared to be the best time for niche occupancy at the Himalayan foothills for assemblages of either winter migrants and visitors or altitudinal and passage migrants, as about 30% of all encountered species were migrants. 96 bird species were observed to occur at any one of these habitat types showing high habitat fidelity. Mixed avian foraging assemblages that varied in species number and compositions were observed and they contain 11 to 17 species. Avifaunal niche diversity and richness in different habitats of Patlakhawa Protected Forest during mid-winter envisaged its importance from conservation point of view.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 15804-15816
Author(s):  
Kalyan Mukherjee ◽  
Ayan Mondal

Butterfly diversity was observed in different habitats of Bankura District, West Bengal, India.  This district is located at the junction of Chotanagpur plateau and Gangetic plain; it contains a variety of transitional habitats.  We found 117 butterfly species from our covered survey area.  The highest species recorded in the present study belonged to family Lycaenidae (30.76%) and Nymphalidae (29.91%) followed by Hesperiidae (16.23%), Pieridae (13.67%), Papilionidae (8.54%), and Riodinidae (0.85%), respectively.  Based on sighting we found that 12.82% of all the butterflies recorded were abundant in nature while 21.36% were very common, 41.88% were frequent, and 23.93% were rare. Cluster analysis and other diversity indices gives us an overall idea about environmental health.  The pattern of diversity change from plain to plateau gradient gives important insight about ecological edge effect.  High species number in relation with low individual numbers were found in forest habitat.  This preliminary study showed that heterogeneous habitats could harbour many butterflies and need proper conservation efforts to sustain it. 


1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1830-1836 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Westworth ◽  
E. S. Telfer

Summer and winter bird use of aspen forests was studied in west central Alberta. Forest age-classes in the study included 1- and 2-year-old clear-cut areas and.14-, 30-, 60-, and 80-year-old stands. Habitat structure and composition were quantified by a combination of measurement and estimation of variables. Density of the breeding bird population was estimated by territorial mapping. Changes in habitat structure between different age-classes resulted in a successional replacement of bird species. Number of individuals was greatest in 14-year-old stands at 656 territories per 100 ha, probably owing to the presence of remnant snags and of large trees that had survived past fires. The 30-year-old stands supported 312 territories per 100 ha, 60-year-old stands 380 territories, and 80-year-old stands 231 territories, respectively. Recently clear-cut areas supported only 110 territories. Number of species followed the same pattern with 25 in 14-year-old stands, 22 in the 30-year-old stands, 21 in the 60-year-old stands, and 14 in the 80-year-old stands. Recent clearcuts supported 10 species. In winter 13 bird species were recorded in the combined clear-cut, 14-, 30-, and 60-year-old stands. The highest number of species (11) were recorded in the 60-year-old stand during winter but the greatest winter bird density (125 individuals/100 ha) occurred in the 30-year-old stand. Three principal components extracted from the habitat data explained 83.2% of the variance in bird use. The components corresponded to gradients in canopy cover, occurrence of conifers, and shrub density.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (10) ◽  
pp. 99-107
Author(s):  
Boyko Georgiev B. ◽  
Jean Mariaux ◽  
Gergana Vasileva P ◽  
Huy Nguyen Quoc ◽  
Manh Vu Quang

The study aimed to evaluate the role of transmitting flatworms (Cestoidea and Trematodea) of wild bird populations in three national parks of Vietnam: Xuan Son in the Northwest mountainous region, Tam Dao in the Northeast mountainous region, and Cat Ba in the Hong River Delta region. Twenty-two wild avian species of 10 families were found to contain parasitic flatworms. According to the number of avian species containing parasitic flatworms, bird families are ranking: Timaliidae recorded with 7 species > Leiothrichidae and Nectariniidae both with 3 species > Pycononotidae and Muscicapidae both with 2 species > Vireonidae, Sylvidae, Picidae, Cisticolidae and Cettiidae with 1 species. According to sex, avian populations containing parasitic flatworms decrease in the order: females accounting for 43.94% of the total individuals > males for 39.40% > juveniles for 16.66%. Three bird species containing flatworms A. pallidus, M. gularis and C. bayumas were found in two of the studied national parks, among them, only the first species was found common to all three studied national parks. They are vectors of high significance from a parasitological point of view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Badrulhadza Amzah ◽  
Razali Baki ◽  
Mohd Hafizi Yahya

In Malaysia, the aerobic rice production system is an alternative approach to growing rice in a water-scarce environment. Like irrigated rice, aerobic rice also can sustain a diversity of avian fauna. The current status of birds in the rice fields of Malaysia especially under aerobic rice condition has not been widely researched. Therefore, this study aims to document the richness, diversity and feeding guilds of bird species in aerobic rice cultivation area. Birds were sampled and recorded using four randomly set up mist net at an upscaling aerobic rice plot in Serdang, Selangor during a period of the one month starting from the milky stage of the plant (75 days after emergence) until two weeks after harvest. 139 birds representing 11 species belonging to 7 families were recorded in the aerobic rice plot. The most abundant bird family observed was Estrildidae (80.58%), followed by Hirundinidae (6.47%), and Meropidae and Motacillidae (both recorded 5.04%). Scaly-breasted munia (50.36%) and white-headed munia (28.06%) are the most abundant birds, while other types of munia such as chestnut munia and white-rumped munia are present in small numbers. Munias were the most observed bird species number (36.36%) and therefore can be considered as the main avian pest of aerobic rice. The diversity indices, The Shannon-Wiener Index was 1.43 while The Reciprocal Simpson Index was 2.93. The richness index (The Margalef Index) was 2.03. The Equitability Index was 0.59. In term of feeding guild, most species belong to insectivore (45.45%) and granivore (36.36%) while the rest were piscivore/insectivore and granivore/insectivore. However, the granivore recorded the highest number of individuals (112 or 80.58%) compared to other guilds. Presence of a relatively high diversity of bird species with varieties of feeding guilds indicated that aerobic rice does provide an attractive habitat or foraging site for avian fauna.


Author(s):  
Santanu Debnath ◽  
Souvik Biswas ◽  
Ashis Kumar Panigrahi

Birds play a crucial role in many food webs of aquatic ecosystem and the birds are known as good ‘bio-indicators’ as they are very sensitive to minor environmental changes. The present study was carried out in Purbasthali bird sanctuary of West Bengal (India) and its surroundings from January 2016 to December 2016 to explore the current status and diversity of avian fauna. The point count and line transect methods were implemented in bird counting. A total of 86 species of birds belonging to 31 families were recorded from the study area. Anatidae and Ardeidae were the dominant families with highest relative diversity. Residential status, IUCN Red list status and Relative abundance of bird species were also considered. Different diversity indices were also calculated. Purbasthali bird sanctuary supports a huge amount of bird diversity. So continuous monitoring of avian fauna and health condition of the ecosystem by local or state levels on taking integrated management programs will helpful to maintain a sustainable development of the habitat.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-157
Author(s):  
Salah Telailia ◽  
Lamia Boutabia ◽  
Mohamed Dhaya El-Hak Khemis ◽  
Ali Elafri ◽  
Nawel Djebbari

Abstrat Recently, Mediterranean coastal lagoons have raised considerable environmental concerns. Long-term studies of seasonal changes in waterbird assemblages are therefore extremely important in terms of ecological relevance and conservation of these sensitive ecosystems. An ornithological survey of four years was carried out in a typical costal wetland (El Mellah lagoon) of Northeastern Algeria. Intra-seasonal comparison of waterbird assemblages (diversity indices) demonstrates clear changes between the wintering and the breeding periods. It seems that the first one was rich in term of species number than the second season (43 against 24). In contrast, the breeding seasons were more equilibrate (high values of Simpson, Shannon and evenness index). Additionally, curves in the diversity/dominance diagram revealed that both wintering and breeding assemblages share the same characteristics of community structure, few dominant species (with intermediate relative abundance) and many rare species with the relative abundance lower than 0.1. Invertebrates (25 species) and piscivorous (11 species) are the most abundant guilds over the four years of study (no significant differences among years have been calculated). The marked decline in bird species diversity recorded in this study (in comparison with previous studies) is mainly due to salinity oscillations (due to aquaculture activities) and may be of concern to wetland managers and it might be useful to provide some guidelines about the characteristics that coastal lagoons have to follow in the construction process to enhance the biodiversity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-456
Author(s):  
Ashikur Rahman Shome ◽  
Md Mahabub Alam ◽  
Md Fazle Rabbe ◽  
Mohammad Mijanur Rahman ◽  
Mohammad Firoj Jaman

A study on diversity, status, and habitat preference of avifauna was conducted from November 2017 to October 2018 in Magura Sadar upazila, Magura. Data was collected through direct field observations using line-transect method. Field surveys were made for three days per month in both rural and urban sites. A total of 140 species of birds belonged to 18 orders and 48 families were reported. Among the total species, 55% (77 species) were non-passerines and 45% (63 species) passerines with the highest individuals were counted under order Passeriformes. Resident bird species were dominant (106 species, 75.71%) over migratory (34 species, 24.28%) species. Species richness was the highest in the rural areas (124 species, 88.57%) and occurrence was the highest in winter season (97 species, 69.29%). The maximum species were recorded from trees (87 species, 62.14%) as preferred habitat. In this study, in total 4,060 individuals of birds were counted and among them, 51.55% (n=2093) were observed in the rural areas and 48.45% (n=1967) were in the urban areas. The highest number of birds was found in December (10.34%, n=432) and seasonal abundance was the highest in winter (40.15%, n=1630). Abundance was the highest for Common Myna (5.76%, n=234) among all recorded species. Diversity indices showed that the bird species were the most diverse in the rural areas in the winter season and in July. Habitat diversity indices were the highest for trees and birds used different types of habitats at different times for roosting, breeding and feeding. Regarding the observation status, 29.28% species was very common, 4.28% common, 31.42% fairly common, and 35% were few. This baseline data indicate that this study site is significant from the ecological and conservation point of views. Therefore, further research is necessary to understand how this avian diversity is maintained in this ecological setting. Bangladesh J. Zool. 48(2): 441-456, 2020


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Suvorov ◽  
Jana Svobodová

ABSTRACT Anthropogenic changes in a landscape create new cues for birds, which must permanently adapt to these. If landscape changes occur too quickly, individuals have insufficient time to develop adequate reactions. They may, therefore, preferentially nest in low-quality habitats, which can lead to diminished nesting success and to reduction of their population size. This is usually termed the ecological trap hypothesis. We reviewed 38 studies investigating this phenomenon and analysed whether relationships exist between ecological trap occurrence and geographical region, habitat type, and/or life strategies of bird species. Ecological traps were most often associated with the presence of exotic species. Exotic species can modify environmental conditions in ways to which native communities are not adapted. They have been mainly detected in open habitats. Such open habitats as arable fields and meadows are under greater human pressure, and rapid changes probably occur there more frequently. Although more studies from North America were investigated, the hypothesis was supported more frequently in European studies. This is possibly due to higher human population density and, hence, more frequent habitat changes. Our results show that an ecological trap is not likely associated with migration. Ground nests suffered fewer consequences of such traps than did other nest types. Although the implications of the ecological trap hypothesis in species conservation are undisputable, a more detailed approach is still needed. For instance, some habitat types, such as suburban areas, have been neglected in the context of ecological traps, as has been the phenomenon’s appearance in pristine habitats.


Zoodiversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 451-458
Author(s):  
G. Kopij

The line transect method has been employed to assess species diversity, population densities and community structure of birds breeding in a mosaic of Kalahari Woodland and farmland, NE Namibia. The transect, 4.5 km long, was surveyed in 2014 and 2015. The total annual rainfall in 2014 was much higher than in 2015 (427 mm vs. 262 mm). In total, 40 breeding species in 2014, and 46 in 2015 were recorded. Six species were dominant in 2014 (Cape Turtle Dove, Laughing Dove, Emerald-spotted Dove, Blue Waxbill, and White-browed Scrub Robin) and only three species in 2015 (Cape Turtle Dove and Blue Waxbill and Yellow-fronted Canary). Although the cumulative dominance in 2014 almost doubled that in 2015, the Community Index in both years was almost identical. Also diversity indices and evenness index were very similar in both years compared. Granivorous birds were the most numerous feeding guild. Their contribution was similar in 2014 and 2015 (46.7 % vs. 43.4 %). Two other feeding guilds, insectivores and frugivores, comprised together more than 50 % in both years. The number of bird species and species diversity were not influenced by the differential rainfall. However, contrary to expectations, population densities of most bird species (at least the more numerous ones) were higher in the year with lower than in the year with higher rainfall. The number of species and species diversity was similar in the farmland and in neighbouring Kalahari Woodland in a pristine stage. However, population densities of most species were lower in the farmland than in the pristine woodland.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Parveen Kumar Jha

 This research paper gives checklist of common birds of Chitwan National Park, which is a wild-life protected area in south-central Nepal. It covers tropical and sub-tropical vegetation. It is first protected area and includes 932 sq. km. Common birds observed are about 170 belonging to 48 Avian families during 2013-2014. Present investigator has very minutely observed birds in habitat conditions. Bird species were recognized by very high binocular. Birds were thoroughly studied from point of view of Taxonomy. Machans were also erected for observing birds.


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