Avifaunal diversity in the scrub forest of Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary , Andhra Pradesh , India

Acknowledgements: This work is part of a research project titled ‘Conservation of Jerdon’s Courser in Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary’ funded by Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Government of India and Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The authors wish to thank the Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai for logistic support and Osmania University, Hyderabad for extending necessary facilities. The authors are also grateful to staff of the AP Forest Department and Rajendra, Rahim, Aslam, Srinu, Venkat Subaiah for their assistance during the field work. Avifaunal diversity in the scrub forest of Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India

important ecological indicators to evaluate the quality of habitats.In general, owing to the destruction of natural habitats, anthropogenic disturbances, pollution and climate, the avifaunal diversity has been showing considerable variability both at spatial and temporal scales.
The conservation value of scrubland has been largely overlooked as major focus is invariably given to forests.This is despite the fact that scrub habitat is important for many species.Many birds feed in the open, but near enough to scrub, to be able to find refuge if danger threatens.In addition, scattered scrub in open sites is often very significant for nest sites and song-posts (Malcome 2007).In India, various studies have been carried out on scrubland bird species (Gandhi 1986(Gandhi , 2006;;Johnsingh et al. 1987;Santharam 1989), however, only a few studies (Jeganathan 2005;Jeganathan et al. 2008) have focused on the significance of scrub forest for scrubland bird species.
Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary (SLWS), Kadapa (Cuddapah) District, Andhra Pradesh, India, falls under the Lankamallai hill ranges of the Eastern Ghats.Earlier studies on the avifauna of the scrub forests of SLWS were focused exclusively on the Critically Endangered Jerdon's Courser Rhinoptilos bitorquatus.
There is a lack of information on the other scrubland birds of the sanctuary.This work aims to document the avifauna of scrub forest of SLWS.

Study Area
SLWS lies between the Nallamalai and Sechachalam hill ranges in the central part of the Eastern Ghats.The sanctuary is located between 14°45' to 15°12' N and 78°48' to 79°6' E (Image 1).It is famous for the last known population for Critically Endangered Jerdon's Courser.The sanctuary ranges from about 137-784 m above mean sea level in elevation.The major types of forest in this sanctuary are southern tropical thorn and southern tropical dry deciduous (Champion & Seth 1968).The sanctuary is bordered in the west by dense scrub and dry red sanders-bearing forest as well as southern dry mixed deciduous forests on the higher elevations of the Lankamallai hills.To the east, agricultural fields, orchards and croplands are found in the valleys of the semi-perennial river Sagileru.This tributary joins the Pennar River, which borders the southern part as well as a part of western side of the Sanctuary.Major floristic components of the scrub forest are thorny species of Acacia, Zizyphus and Carissa, and non-thorny species of Cassia, Hardwickia and Anogeissus.

Materials and Method
The present work was carried out from May 2014 to April 2015 on a monthly basis.The intensive sampling area in SLWS (Image 1) was the scrub forest, which spreads over four patches (marked A to D on Image 1) of approximately 36km² (Jeganathan et al. 2005).
The observations were carried out by using binoculars (10x42) during 06:00-10:00 hr & 16:00-19:00 hr, and the identification of species was done with the help of Grimmett et al. (2011).The birds were recorded according to their status (resident, if the species was found to be present throughout the year in the locality, or local migrant, if the species was not found to be present throughout the year in the locality), abundance (estimated based on frequency of sightings of the birds: ≥20 individuals of a species sighted during all visits were categorized as fairly common, <20 individuals of a species sighted during most of the visits were categorized as common, and birds sighted occasionally in fewer numbers between 1-5 were categorized as uncommon), seasonal visits, site and habitat types.Birds are listed following Praveen et al. (2016).Along with this, extensive camera trapping study was conducted in the study area for the detection of Critically Endangered Jerdon's Courser and camera trap data were also taken into consideration while representing avian bird diversity of the study area.Birds encountered during the study were photographed using both regular DSLR camera with 55-200mm lens and infra-red motion sensor cameras (Reconyx PC 800, PC 900, PM 75).

Results and Discussion
During the present study, a total of 115 bird species belonging to 47 families and 14 orders were recorded from the scrub forest (Table 1, Images 2-67).The family Accipitridae had maximum number of bird species (8).It was followed by the families Cuculidae (7), Phasianidae ( 7) and Muscicapidae (6).Twenty families were represented by a single species each.Most species in the scrub forest of SLWS were resident (106 species, 92.17%) and the rest were migratory (9 species, 7.82%).As many as 15 are fairly common (FC), 81 species are common (C) and 19 are uncommon (UC) (Fig. 1).The only threatatned species recorded was the Painted Stork, which is a Near Threatened species.
Sampling was conducted only in the scrub forest and not in the dense forest to understand the use of scrub forest by avifauna.The scrub forest of SLWS is possibly the last known home for the Critically Endangered Jerdon's Courser and the last confirmed sighting of the species was recorded in August 2009 (BirdLife International 2009).Despite thorough surveys and deployment of 60 camera traps from 2010 to 2012, the Jerdon's Courser had not been detected (Chavan & Barber 2012).During the present study the Jerdon's Courser was not detected.Currently, large scale research is under progress in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh Forest Department to detect the species by using advanced infra-red camera trap.This species is suspected to have declined at an unquantified rate over the last 10 years, owing to the Telugu-Ganga canal, additional habitat loss and degradation outside SLWS as a result of biotic pressures and livestock grazing.
The dependence of the settlers on the area for resources, and the increase in the number of settlers, poses a serious threat to the scrub habitat through fuel-wood collection, livestock grazing, quarrying and clearance for agriculture and plantations (Jeganathan et al. 2008), and to the birds themselves through increased disturbance.Accidental and opportunistic trapping may also be an issue (Jeganathan et al. 2008).
The present study on avifauna of scrub forest of SLWS is of preliminary nature and is an effort to bring out the bird fauna of scrub forest which has suffered severe changes in its habitat quality.This study provides baseline information for future studies to understand and compare the changes that may affect the presence of other avian species from the scrub forest of SLWS.It would be interesting to conduct a long term study to understand the impact of the Telugu-Ganga Project on other avifaunal diversity and their habitats.A further study on the various behavioural aspects of residential and migratory birds will enrich the fauna.Lastly, special efforts need to be taken to restore the scrub habitat for the long term conservation of Critically Endangered Jerdon's Courser, which has been recorded in the past from the current study area.

Image 1 .
Map of Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh (b) showing its location in India (a) where the present study on scrubland birds was conducted between May 2014 to April 2015 (Grey shaded areas -marked A to D, are the extent of scrubland where observations were carried out)