Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2019 | 11(12): 14496–14502

 

 

 

Report of five interesting avian species from Durgapur ecoregion, West Bengal, India by citizen science effort

 

Sagar Adhurya 1 & Shantanu Bhandary 2

 

1 Department of Zoology, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal 731235, India.

1,2 Durgapur Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society, Fuljhore, Durgapur, Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal 713206, India.

1 sagaradhurya.rs@visva-bharati.ac.in (corresponding author), 2 shaanbhandary@gmail.com

 

 

 

Abstract: This study aimed to report a few lesser known species from Durgapur ecoregion, West Bengal, India.  In spite of the anthropogenic pressure, Durgapur supports a high avian diversity.  So far, 257 avian species belonging to 59 families were recorded with a citizen science effort during a period of more than five years (2013–present).  Out of these, five species discussed here, are either not recorded previously or have few records: Hume’s Lark and Graceful Prinia were recorded from riverine habitat; and Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo, White-rumped Shama, and Indian Blue-Robin were recorded from woodland habitat.  More extensive exploration of this region with involvement of citizen scientists in this study will enrich our knowledge about bird diversity, their migration and distribution pattern in this region.

 

Keywords: Anthropogenic activity, birds, drongo, lark, prinia, robin, shama.

 

 

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3980.11.12.14496-14502  |  ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9E0EAB8F-3F3B-496B-AFCB-76E9C711F8D6

 

Editor: Hem Sagar Baral, Charles Sturt University, Australia.       Date of publication: 26 September 2019 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: #3980 | Received 30 December 2017 | Final received 13 July 2019 | Finally accepted 31 August 2019

 

Citation: Adhurya, S. & S. Bhandary (2019). Report of five interesting avian species from Durgapur ecoregion, West Bengal, India by citizen science effort. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(12): 14496–14502. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3891.11.12.14496-14502

 

Copyright: © Adhurya & Bhandary 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: Self-funded.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Author details: Sagar Adhurya is Senior Research Fellow at Department of Zoology, Visva-Bharati University.  Shantanu Bhandary is employee of Eastern Coalfield Limited.  Both of the authors are member of Durgapur Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society and working on its project on avian diversity study.

 

Author contribution: SA wrote the paper and performed all of the analysis.  Both authors collected field data.

 

Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank all members of Durgapur Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society for their hard efforts to explore the biodiversity of Paschim Bardhaman District; especially Nirjhar Banerjee for his first sighting of Hume’s Lark, Sumit Acharjee for his field cooperation to find Indian Blue-Robin and Saikat Adhurya for his field cooperation to find Graceful Prinia.  Authors are thankful to Amar Kumar Nayak for the help with essential literature. Authors are also thankful to prof. Santanu Ray, Dr. Utpal Singha Roy, and Dr. Moitreyee Chakraborty for their constant encouragement behind this study.

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Durgapur is an industrial city in West Bengal, India.  Geographically, it lies in the transitional zone between two ecoregions, Chotanagpur Plateau and Gangetic Plains.  Complementing its unique geographical location, this region harbours exceptional biodiversity, having species from both the ecoregions mentioned earlier.  Mention may be made that the Common Babbler Argya caudata and Striated Babbler Argya earlei are species of Chotanagpur Plateau and Gangetic Plains respectively, but then, the present study revealed that both these species are found in this ecoregion.

Avifaunal diversity of this region has been studied by various researchers, however, most of their studies focused on Damodar Valley (Gauntlett 1971, 1985; Chakraborty 2011; Hossain & Aditya 2016).  Thus, it was felt necessary to undertake a holistic study to get an idea about the avifaunal diversity of the entire city and its outskirts.  This was the primary motivation behind the present work where, for the first time, the whole area of Durgapur was taken into consideration for studying avifaunal diversity.  We started a citizen science program namely ‘Birding Durgapur’ in 2013 to accomplish our job.  With increasing citizen science involvement, we increased our area of work to the whole Paschim Bardhaman District in April 2017.  In recent days, the citizen science program has become a potential tool for biodiversity monitoring (Cohn 2008; Silvertown 2009; Devictor et al. 2010; Theobald et al. 2015).  Several web-based popular programs (such as eBird, CBMI, MigrantWatch etc.) rely on the power of citizen scientists.  The volunteer citizen scientists minimize the difficulties of researchers to study a large region.  Increase in a number of observers in an area, in turn, increases the frequency of sampling, resulting in better coverage and public awareness.

In present days, finding a bird outside of its range is not uncommon.  It may occur due to three possible reasons.  First, increase in the number of birds beyond carrying capacity, forcing excess individuals to go beyond the range to find suitable resources for their survival.  Second, an increase in the number of observers helps to fill the gap in knowledge about the bird distribution pattern.  Third, disturbances (possibly driven by unpredictable climate patterns and anthropogenic habitat alteration) beyond the tolerance limit in its range forcing the species to shift.

This article aims to report the five-interesting avifauna from Durgapur ecoregion, which are either not recorded or very little recorded from this geographical area.

 

Materials and Methods

 

Study area

The present study was carried out in Durgapur subdivision (23.480N, 87.32°E) of Paschim Bardhaman District, West Bengal, India and adjoining Damodar Valley (Fig. 1).  Durgapur is the 77th most populated city in India with 566,517 people (as per 2011 census of Government of India) and covers an area of about 154km2.  This industrial city is at approximately 65m above sea level and located in the transitional zone between the Chotanagpur Plateau and the Gangetic Plains.  This ecoregion is surrounded by the river Damodar in the south and the river Ajoy in the north.  Soil, in this region, is red laterite type.  About 100 years ago, the total area was covered by dense Sal Shorea robusta forest, which was cleared gradually from the late 1950s to establish India’s second planned city (Chakrabarti 1989).

 

Data collection

A citizen science program, ‘Biodiversity of Paschim Bardhaman’ (formerly known as ‘Birding Durgapur’) has been running since 2013 to create interest among the citizens of Durgapur and adjoining areas for nature watching by Durgapur Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society.  Nature-watchers use digital cameras for photography and field binoculars for birdwatching.  Nature watchers regularly post their efforts (eBird checklists, photographs and call recordings) with date and place in the Facebook group.  All observations are verified by the group experts.  Species were identified by using suitable field guides (Grimmett et al. 2011; Ali 2012; Grewal et al. 2016) while suitable field guides (Grimmett et al. 2011; Baidya et al. 2017), online range maps and databases (eBird 2017) and publications (Gauntlett 1971, 1985; Chakraborty 2011; Hossain & Aditya 2014) on this region were followed to find out the distribution and occurrence of various bird species.  A checklist of birds of Durgapur subdivision is continuously maintained by group members.

 

 

Results

 

Since 2013, 257 species belonging to 59 families have been recorded with the cumulative effort of citizen scientists in Durgapur subdivision.  Out of these, eight species did not have any previous records from this ecoregion before 2013.  Of these, three species were reported recently (Gupta et al. 2013; Nayak et al. 2015; Maulick & Adhurya 2017).  The remaining five avian species are discussed below (Table 1).

 

Family Alaudidae

Hume’s Lark Calandrella acutirostris: This species was recorded three times: the first record from Beharpur (23.466˚N, 87.347˚E) on 10 February 2017, the second record from Krishna Nagar Village (23.460˚N,87.328˚E) on 26 March 2017, and the third record from Durgapur Barrage (23.476˚N, 87.308˚E) on 25 December 2017.  This species was identified by its typical call pattern and its dark lore, pale ear coverts, yellowish bill with a dark spot at culmen, pale crescent below the eye and lightly streaked upperparts.  Habitat was riverside agricultural land (Image 1).

 

Family Cisticolidae

Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis stevensi: This species has been recorded regularly at Durgapur Barrage (23.468°N, 87.306°E) since 16 April 2017.  This is a smaller prinia compared to other similar looking grassland prinia of this region.  It is separated from other prinias by streaked upperparts and cross-barred tail with white tip.  The dark grey brown upperparts indicated the subspecies P. g. stevensi.  In addition, this species can be identified with its typical zr-zr-zr call which was heard during the field work.  Habitat was river sand bed with sarpat grass (Image 2).

 

Family Dicruridae

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus remifer: One immature individual was spotted at Kumar Mangalam Park (23.563˚N, 87.303˚E) on 10 November 2016.  The immature individual was differentiated from a similar looking species D. aeneus (Bronzed Drongo) by the lesser forked tail and shorter bill.  The sound was variable, loud and musical.  Habitat was woodland (Image 3).

 

Family Muscicapidae

White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus: One female was found at Kumar Mangalam Park (23.563˚N, 87.303˚E) on 10 November 2016.  The female was identified from similar-looking abundant C. saularis (Oriental Magpie-Robin) by its white rump, and orangish breast and whitish belly.  Habitat was woodland (Image 4).

Indian Blue-Robin Larvivora brunnea: A male was observed at Tilabani forest (23.657˚N, 87.283˚E) on 19 April 2017.  It was identified by bold white supercilium, black lore and cheek, bluish upperparts, chestnut throat, breast and flanks, white vent and undertail covert and short tail.  Habitat was forest floor (Image 5).

 

Discussion

            

All of the above-mentioned species are mostly unknown from Durgapur ecoregion and some of them have been only recently included in the literature (Baidya et al. 2017).  The Hume’s Lark and Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo may be the first record from the Paschim Bardhaman and adjoining Bankura District.  The Hume’s Lark mainly has distribution in northern West Bengal; up to upper edges of Birbhum District.  Though the species has been recorded from Damodar Valley (Chakraborty et al. 2011), the location of the finding is unclear.  In addition, Chakraborty (2011) marked the species as resident, while it is a well-known winter migrant (Grimmett et al. 2011; Grewal et al. 2016; Baidya et al. 2017).  The Graceful Prinia is mainly found in the northern part of West Bengal up to the upper part of Birbhum District in the south.  Recently, it has been also recorded at Damodar Valley of Asansol subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman District and Bardhaman, Purba Bardhaman district (Baidya et al. 2017), but no records have been made in between these two regions so far.  The multiple record of Graceful Prinia between Asansol and Bardhaman suggests that the bird may have distribution throughout the Damodar Valley which was previously unknown.  The Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo has distribution mainly in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts).  But recently it has been recorded as a rare winter migrant to the Gangetic plains of West Bengal (Khan 2005; Roy et al. 2016; Baidya et al. 2017).  In addition to these records, our record suggests that this species may also have a wintering range to Damodar Valley at the west.  As Baidya et al. (2017) concluded in their book, there needs further investigation about the wintering activity of this bird.  The White-rumped Shama is distributed up to the hilly region of the western part of West Midnapur, Purulia and Paschim Bardhaman district to the east (Baidya et al. 2017).  But it has no earlier record from Durgapur ecoregion, which is not a hilly area.  The present record suggests that this bird sometime visits the far east to plateau-plains transition areas like Durgapur.  As per Baidya et al. (2017), the Indian Blue Robin is a passage migrant to the whole of West Bengal except the extreme eastern corner.  This is actually a lesser-known bird from this region.

The number of avifaunal species in Durgapur subdivision is increasing day by day with increasing citizen involvement and more extensive exploration.  At the end of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 the total number of avifaunal species at Durgapur subdivision was 139, 163, 186, 221, 238, and 253, respectively (Adhurya, unpublished work) (Fig. 2).  With the increasing number of avian species, finding of unreported avian species is also increasing due to the interesting geographical position.  Records of these species are important because there are very few records of these species from this ecoregion in both existing range maps and literature.  But most of the places in this region are still unexplored and need more citizen scientist involvement as a cost-effective method, which will help us to understand in more detail the spatial and temporal occurrence of different avian species.

 

Table 1. Tabular presentation of five species and their occurrence pattern.

 

 

Scientific name

Common name

Period of occurrence

1

Calandrella acutirostris

Hume’s Lark

February, March, December

2

Prinia gracilis stevensi

Graceful Prinia

Throughout the year

3

Dicrurus remifer

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

November

4

Copsychus malabaricus

White-rumped Shama

November

5

Larvivora brunnea

Indian Blue-Robin

April

 

 

For figures & images – click here

 

 

References

 

 

Ali, S. (2012). The book on Indian Birds, 13th edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 326pp.

Baidya, K., S. Das, S. Prasad & K.S. Ray (2017) Banglar Pakhpakhali, Part 1. Forest Dwellers, Malda, 555pp. (In Bengali).

Chakrabarti, K. (1989). Industrialisation and its impact on the tribal peoples a case study of Durgapur steel plant vis a vis tribal peoples in the area. PhD Thesis. Department of Sociology, University of Calcutta, IV+255pp.

Chakraborty, R. (2011). Mammalian and avian faunal diversity in Damodar Valley under DVC project area. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 328: 1–38.

Cohn, J.P. (2008). Citizen Science: Can Volunteers Do Real Research? BioScience 58(3): 192-197. https://doi.org/10.1641/B580303

Devictor, V., R.J. Whittaker & C. Beltrame (2010). Beyond scarcity: citizen science programmes as useful tools for conservation biogeography. Diversity and Distributions 16(3): 354–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00615.x

eBird (2017). eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Ithaca, New York. Accessed 28 December 2017.

Gauntlett, F.M. (1971). Durgapur Barrage as a waterbird habitat. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 68(3): 619–632.

Gauntlett, F.M. (1985). The birds of Durgapur and the Damodar valley. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 82(2): 501–539.

Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (2011). Birds of India, 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 528pp.

Gupta, S., A. Mukherjee, D. Palit, P. Chatterjee & I. Biswas (2013). A reporting on Wire-tailed Swallows (Hirundo smithii) winter visit to Durgapur Barrage, West Bengal, India. Zoo’s Print 28(8): 22–24.

Hossain, A. & G. Aditya (2016). Avian diversity in agricultural landscape: records from Burdwan, West Bengal, India. Proceedings of the Zoological Society 69(1): 38–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-014-0118-3

Khan, M.M.H. (2005). Species diversity, relative abundance and habitat use of the birds in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary, Bangladesh. Forktail 21: 79–86.

Maulick, R. & S. Adhurya (2017). A report of the Dollarbird Eurystomus orientalis from southern West Bengal. Indian Birds 13(3): 84.

Nayak, A.K., S. Adhurya & U.S. Roy (2015). First record of Common Babbler Turdoides caudata (Timaliidae) from Burdwan district, West Bengal and range extension to Eastern India. Zoo’s Print 30(7): 12–13.

Roy, M.B., B. Chatterjee, T. Mukherjee & P.K. Roy (2016). Environmental threat to wetland bio-diversity of migratory bird: a case study of peri-urban area of West Bengal. Asian Journal of Current Research 1(1): 30–38.

Silvertown, J. (2009). A new dawn for citizen science. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24(9): 467–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.017

Theobald, E.J., A.K. Ettinger, H.K. Burgess, L.B. DeBey, N.R. Schmidt, H.E. Froehlich, C. Wagner, J. HilleRisLambers, J. Tewksbury, M.A. Harch & J.K. Parrish (2015). Global change and local solutions: Tapping the unrealized potential of citizen science for biodiversity research. Biological Conservation 181: 236–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.10.021