The checklist of birds of Rajkot district, Gujarat, India with a note on probable local extinction

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INTRODUCTION
Avifaunal diversity is considered an essential ecological tool to evaluate the health of ecosystems (Bilgrami 1995).Baseline information like a checklist of fauna is a prerequisite for planning and monitoring management actions as well as for policy-making by wildlife authorities for the conservation of fauna and its habitat (Kumar et al.2005).Monitoring of birds of a particular locality is crucial in predicting the ecological health and productivity of the habitat of that locality (Newton 1995;Rotenberry & Wiens 2009).In their book, Ali & Ripley (1987) recorded 1,340 bird species from the Indian Subcontinent.Grimmett et al. (2016) listed 1,313 bird species in and around India that have been reliably recorded until 2010.Recently Praveen et al. (2020) listed 1,332 birds from India.
Gujarat is the only state in the country with five biogeographic zones: semi-arid region, desert, Western Ghats, coasts, and Deccan Peninsula (Solanki et al. 2021).Diverse wildlife habitats include the Great and Little Rann of Kachchh, the Banni grasslands, 42 off-shore islands in Marine National Park of the Gulf of Kachchh near Jamnagar, the dry deciduous forests of Gir and Barda Hills, the tropical thorn forest of Kachchh, Vijaynagar Polo, Ambaji-Balaram and Jessore Sloth Bear Sanctuary, and the moist deciduous forest of southern Gujarat, all of which provide excellent habitats for resident and migratory birds (Tiwari 2010).The bibliography of Gujarat Ornithological accounts dates back to 1758 (Pittie 2010), and in the early 19 th Century, many observations on birds were published by Indian royalties and the British.Edward Butler published a catalog of 1,008 species of Birds of Sind, Cutch (Kutch), Ka'thia'war (Saurashtra), northern Gujarat, and Mount Aboo in 1879 (Butler 1879).Birds of Kutch and Birds of Saurashtra were published in the middle of the 19 th Century comprising 255 and 444 bird species, respectively (Ali 1945;Dharmakumarsinhji 1955).The checklist of birds of Gujarat was published by Bird Conservation Society, Gujarat, which lists a total of 526 species (Parasharya et al. 2004).Later, this checklist was updated in 2016 with a total of 574 species (Ganpule 2016).The checklist of birds of Gujarat was further revised and updated in December 2017 with eight new species making a total of 582 (Ganpule 2017).In 2018 and 2019, 16 new bird species were added to the checklist of Gujarat, which makes the total 598.
Rajkot is the fourth largest city in Gujarat, located at the center of peninsular Saurashtra (Anon 2019).The city is surrounded by many reservoirs, urban lakes, grasslands, and scrub forests, which are home to variety of birds.Rajkot has a considerable number of birdwatchers, amateur birders, wildlife photographers, and conservationists, and scattered records of avian fauna are published on various platforms like: eBird, local newspapers, magazines, periodicals, newsletters, and journals (Butler 1879;Santharam 1990;Soni & Pandya 1995;Soni 2014a,b;Karia 2018;Radadia 2018;Raval et al. 2018).However, to date, no systematic checklist of the avifauna of Rajkot District is available.This study was planned to prepare a checklist of avifauna by carrying out a survey of various potential habitats, as well as compiling earlier and present observations from all possible available sources for Rajkot district, with a discussion on probable local extinction in the past three decades .

Study Area
The avifaunal survey was conducted in and around Rajkot District, Gujarat, India.Rajkot lies at 128 m and the climate is classified as hot, arid steppes (Zone BSh) by the Köppen-Geiger system (Anon 2020).The area experiences an average annual temperature of 26.7 °C | 80.1 °F and precipitation of 674 mm | 26.5 inches per year.Different types of habitats including wetland, scrubland, agriculture, grassland, and forests were surveyed.

Methods
Primary observations of birds were made by conducting regular field visits in winter, summer and monsoon seasons.Birds were observed in the morning (0600-1000 h) and afternoon (1500-1800 h) with 10X binoculars and a 20-60X spotting scope, and photographs were captured with a DSLR camera with >300 mm focal length lens, and point & shoot bridge cameras with >40X optical zoom.The identification of birds was done with the help of Grimmett et al. (2016).For taxonomy, we followed English as well as scientific names as per Praveen et al. (2020).For evaluation and acceptance of species not observed by us, we followed modified Baidya & Bhagat (2018) for inclusion for species in the Rajkot checklist.Acceptance criterion 1: a sight record of a bird species with a photograph, either available online and/or eBird, or provided to us for scrutiny.Acceptance criterion 2: a sight record with/without photographs but published in reputed journals.A species is considered locally extinct, if not sighted or photographed after J TT 1990 till 2020 (three decades).To retrieve relevant literature, we searched the online 'Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology' (http://www.southasiaornith.in/) to prepare a complete checklist of avifaunal diversity of the entire district (Pittie 2020).Birds recorded were categorized according to their migratory and IUCN Red List status.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As per annexure 1, we reported 348 species of birds belonging to 74 families and 22 orders from Rajkot District, of which 281 species were observed by us during the survey, and records of 67 species were compiled based on evaluation and acceptance criteria, and past observations through published literature.A total of 124 species are found to breed in Rajkot district.As per Figure 1, the maximum number of species were from the order Passeriformes (140), followed by Charadriiformes (50) and Accipitriformes (28).Anseriformes and Pelecaniformes were represented with 19 species each.As per Figure 2, 146 species are resident, 138 winter visitor, 13 monsoon migrant, 12 vagrant as well as local migrant, and the rest have multiple migratory statuses.
Regarding habitat suitability, 116 species are aquatic (wetland dependant), 67 open land, 64 forest, 19 grassland and rest show overlap in habitat preference.Along with the checklist of birds, their migratory/ resident status, IUCN status, and habitat preferences are also listed in Annexure 1 and summarised in Figure 3. Currently, on eBird, there are 296 bird species reported from the entire Rajkot district (eBird 2021).As per Figure 4, 316 species belong to Least Concern (LC), 18 species Near Threatened (NT), eight species Vulnerable (VU), two species Endangered (EN), and four species Critically Endangered (CR) as per IUCN.
Khirashara 'Vidi' (Vidi in Gujarati: Grassland) houses many bird species like francolins and quails (Galliformes) in monsoon, and also raptors in winter, providing important habitats for avifauna (Soni & Jadav 2007).A small lake situated beside the 'vidi' also attracts many migratory waterfowl.

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which fills with rainwater in monsoon and lasts till winter, provides drinking water.Aji River 1, Aji River 2, Nyari Dam 1, and Nyari Dam 2 are large-scale irrigation reservoirs that support diving birds such as cormorants, grebes, and pelicans, and also raptors such as Osprey Pandion haliaetus and Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus.River Terns Sterna aurantia have been nesting here for decades.One individual was ringed as a pullet in 1989 was photographed alive after 24 years at the same place (Mashru 2004a;Karia 2016).Banks of these dams act as a roosting place for ducks and waders.A colour aberrant Wood Sandpiper has been reported from here in the past (Khachar 1969).When it starts to dry up in late winter it provides a foraging area for pipits and wagtails.Such irrigation reserves, together with vast agricultural lands, attract migratory cranes in the winter season (Gole 1985).Irrigation reserves have been supporting large heronries in Rajkot for decades (Mashru 2004b(Mashru , 2006)).The Government of Gujarat has implemented the 'Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation' scheme under which all the dams are filled up to their capacity till summer.Due to this dams are constantly filled at high water levels creating adverse situations for ducks and sandpipers.These dams also support good numbers of flamingos on its peripheries.
In Nyari-1 Dam, two reedbeds are created due to the seepage of water from the dam.These reedbeds houses reed beds specialist birds such as bitterns (three species), crakes (three species), Red Munia Amandava amandava, and Black-breasted Weaver Ploceus benghalensis.Randarda and Lalpari lakes harbor many important migratory waterbirds during winter such as Mallard Anas platyrhynchos and Raptors such as Longlegged Buzzard Buteo rufinus.Infact, the first breeding record of Small Pratincole Glareola lactea is from Lalpari Lake in the year 1968 (Jadav 1968).Many surprising records have been recorded from Rajkot Zoological Park such as White-browed Bulbul Pycnonotus luteolus and Black-naped Oriole Oriolus chinensis (Dhami 2018;Sitapara et al. 2019).A government nursery positioned near the lake provides shelter to many flycatchers and warblers.A Eurasian Scops Owl Otus scops was also sighted here which was the first record of Rajkot district (Radadia 2019).

CONCLUSION
Rajkot city and the adjacent area contain a variety of excellent habitats for different groups of birds.The district supports over half of the total bird species

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of Gujarat, and almost 25% of bird species in India.It includes important resident as well as migratory species, including several Red Listed species.Being an important area for avifaunal diversity, sites in and around Rajkot should receive immediate attention for conservation.It is important to note that 17 species have not been sighted since 1990, hence we have listed them as locally extinct, while four other species are listed as data deficient.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Species diversity of birds in different orders.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Species diversity in various IUCN Red List categories.

21508-21528 21519 J TT Species Status in Gujarat IUCN Red List Category Habitat Breeding eBird/ Media Publication Pers. Comm.
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TT Species Status in Gujarat IUCN Red List Category Habitat Breeding eBird/ Media Publication Pers. Comm.
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