An appraisal of avian species diversity in and around Purulia Town, West Bengal, India
Main Article Content
Abstract
Purulia, the westernmost district of West Bengal, India is least explored with respect to the biological diversity and relatively little information is available to date. The present study was conducted from February 2017 to January 2018 to document avifaunal diversity in Purulia Town and surroundings. Sampling was done through the line transect method with photographic documentation and subsequent identification following suitable keys. Species richness and seasonal abundance were calculated. Altogether, 115 species of birds belonging to 19 orders and 43 families were recorded during the study period. Passeriformes was the most dominant order represented by 46 species during the study. The Shannon-Wiener (H’) value was highest for January (1.564). A large number of migratory birds visit Purulia every year mostly during winter and it is reflected in the present study. Diverse foraging habit among the birds was observed during the study period and omnivorous birds (29%) were found in highest number followed by invertivores (26%), carnivores (25%), granivores (8%), herbivores (7%), frugivores (3%), and nectarivores (2%). The present study is a preliminary effort to document the avifaunal diversity of Purulia and a more extensive systematic study should be carried out to investigate and protect the avifaunal diversity of this region.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT. This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.
References
Ali, S. (2002). The Book of Indian Birds (13th Revised Edition). Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 326pp.
Bibby, C.J., N.D. Burgess & D.A. Hill (1992). Bird Census Techniques. Academic Press, London, 257pp.
Billerman, S.M., B.K. Keeney, P.G. Rodewald & T.S. Schulenberg (Eds.) (2020). Birds of the World. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home
BirdLife International (2018). State of the world’s birds: indicators for our changing world. Cambridge, UK. www.birdlife.org.
Blake, J.G., J.M. Hanowski, G.J. Niemi & P.T. Collins (1994). Annual variation in bird populations of mixed conifer northern hardwood forests. Condor 96: 381–399.
Buckland, S.T., D.R. Anderson, K.P. Burnham, J.L. Laake, D.L. Borchers & L. Thomas (Eds.) (2004). Advanced Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 434pp.
Das, D. (2016). Above ground arthropod diversity in a tropical deciduous forest in Ayodhya Hill, Purulia, India. Proceedings of the Zoological Society 69: 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-015-0140-0
Das D. (2018). Butterfly (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) diversity in relation to habitat utilization at Jagannath Kishore College, Purulia, West Bengal (India). Journal of Insect Biodiversity 007(1): 001–016. https://doi.org/10.12976/jib/2018.07.1.1
Daube, J., H. Michaela, S. Dietmar, W. Rainer, O. Annette & W. Volkmar (2003). Landscape structure as an indicator of biodiversity: matrix effects on species richness. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 98: 321–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(03)00092-6
Gajera, N.B., A.K.R. Mahato & V.V. Kumar (2013). Status, distribution, and diversity of birds in mining environment of Kachchh, Gujarat. International Journal of Biodiversity 2013: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/471618
Gaston, K.J. (2000). Biodiversity: higher taxon richness. Progress in Physical Geography 24: 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913330002400108
Ghosh, S. (2010). Urban biodiversity of Calcutta: Flowering plants, Butterflies, Birds and Mammals West Bengal, India, West Bengal, India. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 327: 1–250.
Gibbons, D.W. & R.D. Gregory (2006). Birds, pp 308–344. In: Sutherland, W.J. (ed.). Ecological Census Techniques: AHandbook. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 446pp.
Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (2011). Birds of the India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 528pp.
Hadley, S.J.K., A.S. Hadley & M. Betts (2012). Acoustic classification of multiple simultaneous bird species: a multi-instance multi label approach. Journal of Acoustical Society of America 131(6): 4640–4650. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4707424
BirdLife International (2018). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 3. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v3_Nov18.zip.
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
Hutto, R.L., S.M. Pletschet, P. Hendricks (1986). A fixed–radius point count method for non-breeding and breeding season use. Auk 103: 593–602. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/103.3.593
Jankowski, J.E., A.L. Ciecka, N.Y. Meyer & K.N. Rabenold (2009). Beta diversity along environmental gradient: implications of habitat specialization in tropical montane landscapes. Journal of Animal Ecology 78: 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01487.x
Javed, S. & R. Kaul (2000). Field Methods for Birds Survey. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India, Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and World Pheasant Association, South Asia Regional Office (SARO), Delhi. Mumbai, 61pp.
Jayson, E. & D.N. Mathew (2000).Diversity and species abundance distribution of birds in the tropical forests of Silent Valley, Kerala. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 97: 390–400.
Khan, T.N., A. Sinha & P. Hazra (2016). Population trends and community composition of migratory waterbirds in three emerging wetlands of global significance in southwestern Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(3): 8541–8555. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2652.8.3.8541-8555
Koskimies, P. (1989). Birds as a tool in environmental monitoring. Annales Zoological Fennici 26: 153–166.
Lawton, J.H. (2000). Community Ecology in a Changing World. Ecology Institute, Oldendorf/Luhe.Germany, 227pp.
Magurran, A.E. (2004). Measuring Biological Diversity. Blackwell Publishing. Oxford, UK, 256pp.
McAleece, N., J.D.G. Gage, P.J.D. Lambshead & G.L.J. Paterson (1997). BioDiversity Professional Statistics Analysis Software. Jointly developed by the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the Natural History Museum London.
Morrison, M.L. (1986). Bird population as indicators of environmental change. Current Ornithology 3: 429–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6784-4_10
Nandi, N.C., S. Bhuinya & S.R. Das (2004). Notes on mid-winter water bird population of some selected wetlands of Bankura and Purulia districts, West Bengal. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 102(Part 1–2): 47–51.
O’Connell, T.J., L.E. Jackson & R.P. Brooks (2000). Bird guilds as indicators of ecological condition in the Central Appalachians. Ecological Applications 10: 1706–1721. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1706:BGAIOE]2.0.CO;2
Prasad, K.K., B. Ramakrishna, C. Srinivasulu & B. Srinivasulu (2014). Avifaunal diversity of Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6(2): 5464–5467. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3505.5464-77
Ramchandra, A.M. (2013). Diversity and richness of bird species in newly formed habitats of Chandoli National Park in Western Ghats, Maharashtra State, India. Biodiversity Journal 4(1): 235–242
Rodríguez-Estrella, R. (2007). Land use changes affect distributional patterns of desert birds in the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. Diversity and Distribution 13: 877–889. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00387.x
Roy, U.S., A.R. Goswami, A. Aich & S.K. Mukhopadhyay (2011). Changes in densities of water bird species in Santragachi Lake, India: potential effects on limno chemical variables. Zoological Studies 50(1): 76–84.
Samanta, S, D. Das & S. Mandal (2017). Butterfly fauna of Baghmundi, Purulia,
West Bengal, India: a preliminary checklist. Journal of Threatened Taxa 9(5): 10198–10207. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2841.9.5.10198-10207
Savidge, J.A. (1984). Guam: paradise lost for wildlife. Biological Conservation 30: 305–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(84)90049-1
Sengupta, S., M. Mondal & P. Basu (2014). Bird species assemblages across a rural urban gradient around Kolkata, India. Urban Ecosystems 17(2): 585–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-013-0335-y
Storch, D., M. Konvicka, J. Benes, J. Martinková & K. Gaston (2003). Distribution patterns in butterflies and birds of the Czech Republic: Separating effects of habitat and geographical position. Journal of Biogeography 30(8): 1195–1208. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2003.00917.x