Birds of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History Campus, AnaikattyHills, southern India

A. Mohamed Samsoor Ali ¹, S.B. Shanthakumar², S. Ramesh Kumar ³, R. Chandran ⁴, S. Suresh Marimuthu ⁵ & P.R. Arun ⁶

^1,2,3,4,6 Environmental Impact Assessment Division, ⁵ Ornithology Division,

Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Anaikatty, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India

¹ amsamsoor@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author), ² srshanth@gmail.com, ³ ramesh.wild@gmail.com,⁴ chandran.r.123@gmail.com, ⁵ ssureshmarimuthu@yahoo.co.in,⁶ eiasacon@gmail.com

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.3660.5288-98 | ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D4BAF57A-7EB2-42CB-959A-E081077B8BCD

Editor: C. Srinivasulu, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. Date of publication: 26 December 2013 (online & print)

Manuscript details: Ms # o3660 | Received 11 June 2013 | Final received 04 December 2013 | Finally accepted 08 December 2013

Citation: Ali, A.M.S., S.B. Shanthakumar, S.R. Kumar, R. Chandran, S.S. Marimuthu& P.R. Arun (2013). Birds of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History Campus, AnaikattyHills, southern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(17): 5288–5298; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.3660.5288-98

Copyright: © Ali et al. 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported 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: None.

Competing Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: Authors are thankful to Dr. P.A. Azeez, Director, SACON, for his immense support and allowing us to conduct this study. We grateful to Drs. Rajah Jayapal and P. Balasubramanian, Principal Scientists, SACON, for their valid comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

The publication of this article is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.

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Birds are common dwellers of ecosystems and have been considered as environmental bio-indicators of inhabited areas (Blair 1999). There are approximately 9,990 bird species recorded in our planet and, the Indian subcontinent is home to 1,313 bird species (Grimmettet al. 2011). Tamil Nadu is known for its rich diversity of avifauna with more than 450 species including several endemic and conservation prioritised species (Islam & Rahmani 2004). Previously, Nirmala (2002) documented the birds of the Anaikatty area of the Western Ghats. The present study attempts to prepare a checklist of birds in and around the campus of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) situated in the Anaikatty Hills (11⁰05’30.9”N & 76⁰47’36.2”E), 30km northwest of Coimbatore City, on the border of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR), Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu (Fig. 1). Being located on the eastern slope (~ 600 elevation), the climate is semi-arid with temperature soaring up to 41⁰C during summer and the annual rainfall hardly exceeds 700mm. The SACON campus was established during early 1994 in 55 acres of degraded land. Tree planting initiatives (in 2000) and protection measures against livestock grazing enhanced the vegetation growth inside the campus which became a source of attraction for many bird species. The campus’ vegetation is predominantly scrub forest type, with a small Eucalyptus plantation. The campus harbours 200 species of plants that includes 60 tree species (Balasubramanianet al. 2012). Common woody species of the campus include Premna tomentosa, Albizia amara and Chloroxylon swietenia and tall shrubs include Lantana camara and Chromolaena odorata. Based on rainfall and temperature the study area experiences four distinct seasons, namely, southwest monsoon (June–August), northeast monsoon (September–November), winter (December–February) and summer (March–May).

Regular fortnightly surveys between January 2012 and May 2013 were done by walk on fixed routes in and around the campus including the banks of a non-perennial stream located on the western side of the campus. Surveys were usually made in the morning (07:00–10:00 hr) and evening (16:00–18:00 hr), and also sometimes in the night for owls and nightjars. The identification of birds in the field was based on Ali (2002) and Grimmett et al. (2011), while Manakadan & Pittie(2001) was referred to for binomial names and authorities. The photographs of birds were taken with a SONY Digital Camera (DSC-HX200V) with zoom lens.

Depending on movement and seasonality of occurrence, the birds are classified as: resident (species found throughout the year), winter migrant (species migrates from outside India during winter) and local migrant (species found irregularly but is resident to India). Depending on the frequency of sightings during the field visits, birds are classified as: abundant (birds sighted in more than 80% of the visits), common (sighted in 60–<80 %), uncommon (sighted in 40–<60 %), occasional (sighted in 20–<40 %) and rare (sighted in <20%). Breeding bird referred to as species observed to breed or showing evidence (nests or newly fledged chick(s) recorded) in the study area.

Results and Discussion: A total of 145 species of birds belonging to 106 genera and 48 families were recorded in and around the SACON campus (Appendix 1). The study area supports 76 passerine and 69 non-passerine bird species. Among the passerines, the best represented family is the Sylviinae (nine species), Timaliinae(seven species), Turdinae (six species) and Fringillidae and Dicruridae (five species each). Of the non-passerines, the Accipitridae (12 species) has the most species, followed by Cuculidae (eight species), Columbidae and Picidae (six species each) and Psittacidae and Alcedinidae(four species each). Two species, Blue-winged Parakeet Psittacula columboides and White-cheeked Barbet Megalaima viridis are endemic to the Western Ghats. Of the 145 species, all the 12 species belonging to the family Accipitridae, Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus and Indian Grey Hornbill Ocyceros birostris are included under Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Among the 145 species, 73 (50%) are resident species, 58 (40%) local migrants and 14 (10%) winter migrants (Table 1). The Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus, Indian PittaPitta brachyura, Forest Wagtail Dendronanthus indicus, Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava, Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus, Blyth’s Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum, Greenish Leaf-Warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides, Hume’s Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia althaea, Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica, Verditer FlycatcherEumyias thalassina, Common Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus, and Rosy Starling Sturnus roseus are some important winter migrants and usually seen between mid November and early January, of these, the Green Sandpiper, Indian Pitta and the Grey Wagtail are also seen during the summer season in the study area.

Among the total species observed, 45 (31%) species are uncommon, 38 (26%) common, 26 (18%) occasional, 24 (17%) rare and 12 (8%) abundant (Table 1). The most abundant species in the study area are Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus, Red-vented Bulbul P. cafer, White-browed Bulbul P. luteolus, White-headed Babbler Turdoides affinis, Blue-winged Parakeet P. columboides, Small Bee-eater Merops orientalis, Common Iora Aegithina tiphia, Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis and Purple-rumpedSunbird Nectarinia zeylonica. The White-necked Stork Ciconia episcopus, Sirkeer Malkoha Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii, Black Bulbul Hypsipetes leucocephalus, Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina and Asian Fairy-Bluebird Irena puella were recorded only once during the entire survey period. Twenty-two species of birds were observed to be restricted to the stream side vegetations including some evergreen forest bird species (Appendix 1).

Forty species were recorded breeding in and around the SACON campus (Appendix 1). Of these, 23 species were seen to be nesting while the remaining 17 species were observed with their juveniles. Most of the species started their breeding activities at the end of the northeast monsoon.

Nirmala(2002) reported 187 species of birds from a larger area in the Anaikatty Hills of Western Ghats. The present study which focussed on a subset area of the earlier study, reports 19 additional species (Appendix 1) that were not reported by Nirmala(2002). However, there were 61 species which are found in the earlier checklist that could not be observed during the present study, because the study was carried out in relatively smaller and selected areas only. We hope that this updated checklist of birds would serve as a guide to the bird-watching community especially to students and research scholars and those who visit the SACON campus.

REFERENCES

Ali, S. (2002). The Book of Indian Birds (13^th Revised Edition). Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 326pp.

Balasubramanian, P., P. Nehru & M.K. Sebastian (2012).Forest Genetic Resources Conservation in SACON, Anaikatty, Coimbatore, pp. 314–319. In: Palanisamy, K., N.Krishnakumar & R. Anandalakshmi(eds.). Forest Genetic Resources Management in India. Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree breeding, Coimbatore.

Blair, R.B. (1999). Birds and butterflies; surrogate taxa for assessing biodiversity? Ecological Application 9: 164–170.

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.

Islam, M.Z. & A.R. Rahmani(2004). Important Bird Areas in India: Priority Sites for Conservation. Indian Bird Conservation Network: Bombay Natural History Society and Birdlife International (UK), xviii+1133pp.

Manakadan, R. & A. Pittie(2001). Standardized Common and Scientific Names of the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Buceros6(1): 1–37.

Nirmala, T. (2002). Ecology of birdscommunities in the Anaikatty Hills, Coimbatore. PhD Thesis, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.