Status of avifauna at Taranga Hill-forest, Gujarat, India
C.D.
Patel 1 & M.I. Patel 2
1 Department of
Biology, 2 Principal,
M.N. College,
Visnagar, Gujarat 384315, India.
Email: 1 chirag.naja@gmail.com, 2 prinmncvis@gmail.com
Date of
publication (online): 26 February 2010
Date of
publication (print): 26 February 2010
ISSN 0974-7907
(online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: M. Zornitza
Aguilar
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o2278
Received 31 July
2009
Final received
09 January 2010
Finally accepted
11 February 2010
Citation: Patel, C.D.
& M.I. Patel (2010). Status of avifauna at Taranga Hill-forest, Gujarat,
India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(2): 695-699.
Copyright: © C.D. Patel
& M.I. Patel 2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Author Details: C.D. Patel,
a research scholar is a life member of Vihang Research Foundation, Ahmedabad
& Bird Conservation Society, Gujarat. He is pursuing research in ornithology with special emphasis on
terrestrial birds under the supervision of M.I. Patel.
M.I. Patel’s
field of specialization is in population ornithology. At present, he is a member of the State level
Expert Appraisal Committee, Gujarat. He
is a life member of BNHS, ISCA, Kolkata & WWF, Mumbai.
Author
Contribution:CDP conducted fieldwork for two years, identified birds and conducted
population counts. He has contributed
towards writing and analysis of field data. MIP formulated and conceptualized the project, research design and plan
of work.
Acknowledgements:We
are thankful to Devarshi Bhavasar who helped us regularly throughout our field
work without any self-interest. C.D.P.
is thankful to the Commissioner of Higher Education, Gandhinagar for financial
support.
Abstract:Taranga is one of the famous pilgrim places of northern Gujarat. It is located (240 00’N & 72046’E) at
starting point of Aravalli ranges. Climate of this area is semi-arid with irregular rainfall. Variable width
line transect method was adapted to study the avifaunal diversity. Taranga Hill-forest has atleast 90 species of
birds belonging to 11 orders, 33 families and 68 genera. Passeriformes being
the largest family. All common residents
appear to be adapted to the prevailing conditions. Red-vented Bulbul and Rock Pigeon were most
abundant while Asian Paradise-flycatcher, Crested Bunting and European Roller
were rare. White-naped Tit a globally
threatened and endemic resident has been found as local migrant, scarce in
number, common in occurrence and breeder in the tropical thorn-scrub habitat of
THf. Plum-headed Parakeet may be a
breeding possible species. In comparison
to other places, the avian diversity is observed poor, because Aravallis are
not on the migratory route or landing site of migratory birds. In addition, anthropogenic factors, presence
of predators and loss of vegetation may be having a telling effect.
Keywords:Aravalli ranges, avifauna, breeding possible, breeding probable, migrant,
omnivores.
Introduction
Avian community studies are
effective tools for monitoring a forest ecosystem. Birds are widely recognized
as good bio-indicators of the quality of the ecosystems (Gill 1994) and health of
the environment. They are responsive to
change; their diversity and abundance can reflect ecological trends in other
biodiversity (Furness & Greenwood 1993). Because of their highly specific habitat requirements, birds become
increasingly intolerant of even slight ecosystem disturbance (Schwartz &
Schwartz 1951).
Work on forest bird community has
been done in other parts of the country time to time. Ramakrishnan (1983) examined several
parameters of the bird communities in the forests of northern Kerala. Diversity and community structure of birds
were also studied by Johnsingh et al. (1987), Johnsingh & Joshua (1994),
Katti (1989), Daniels (1989, 1996 & 1997), Gokula & Vijayan (1996) and
Sundaramoorthy (1991). In similar lines
an attempt has been made to study and assess the present status of birds in the
Taranga Hill-forest.
Study Area
Taranga is one of the famous
pilgrim places of northern Gujarat. The
Taranga Hill-forest (THf) is located at starting point of Aravalli ranges and
situated at 24000’N & 72046’E (365.76m) in the northern Gujarat region,
India. The THf is one of the
unclassified reserve forests (under section-IV) with total area of
18.12km2. According to Champion &
Seth (1968), the THf falls in to forest type 5/E2 (Boswellia type of forest)
of northern Gujarat.
Climate of the area is semi-arid
with irregular rainfall. It is strongly
periodical and seasonal. There are three
main seasons: Winter (November-February), Summer (March-June) and Monsoon
(July-October). Winter is the period of
cold weather. Worm dry weather remains
during summer. The hottest month of the
year is May. Westerly to south-westerly
winds prevails during monsoon. Variable
climate has experienced through out the year, which mainly affects on
vegetation and arthropod abundance.
Taranga Hill-forest experiences a
prolonged dry season. Average
temperature remains 19.800C to 30.730C. The dry season is characteristic by low and erratic rain received primarily
during the monsoon (months of July to September). It gets most of its rain from the south-west
monsoon, which usually sets in by the middle of June or the beginning of July
and continues until September and at times until the beginning of October. Heavy rain occurs during July and August but
usually remains light during June and September. Average annual rainfall remains 663.60mm with
about 40 rainy days.
Common
Vegetation
The THf covers mainly tropical
thorn-scrub type vegetation. It is characterized by low altitude hill
vegetation. Scrubs are dominant species
of this forest. One grassland
occasionally present on small part of plain areas. Shrub species are mainly mixed thorny type,
which is dominantly present in all parts of the forest. Xerophyte vegetation is dominant.
Agro-ecosystems exist at the peripheral areas of the forest. Anogeissus
latifolia, Acacia chundra, Bauhinia recemosa, Butea monosperma andSterculia urens are major trees. Achyranthus aspera, Adhatoda vasica,
Calotropis gigantea, Maytenus emarginata, Zizyphus mauritiana and Abrus
precatorius, Asparagus racemosus, Cuscuta reflexa, Pedalium murex are
common shrubs and climbers. Among the
herbs Andrographis paniculata, Bergia capensis, Cassia auriculata,
Enicostemma hyssopifolium, Datura metel are common.
Methods
The study was conducted from
early December 2006 to late November 2008. Birds were observed from early morning 0600hr till noon and
approximately total 576 man hours were spent. Field work was conducted weekly during the study period in four sites
within the THf.
After considering all the
available methods, the variable width line transect method described by Burnham
et al. (1981) was adopted, in which, the observer walks along a predetermined
route at 0.58km/hr fixed speed, counting the birds seen or heard 10m on both
sides of the path. Whenever a bird was
sighted, it was identified up to species and details like the number of birds,
and habitat type were recorded. Birds
were identified using binoculars (8X40) and with the help of field guide
(Grimmett et al. 1999; Ali 2002). Bird
taxonomy and names follows Grimmett et al. (1998) and characteristic and
specific calls of the birds described by Whistler (1940), Dharamkumarsinhji
(1954), Woodcock (1980) and Ali & Ripley (1987) were followed for locating
and identifying bird species.
Status
Resident: Resident (R) -
Resident throughout the year, Local Migrant (LM) - Resident with some local
movement, WM - Winter Migrant, MM - Monsoon Migrant, PM - Passage Migrant,
Vagrant (V) - Vagrant with only a single or a couple of records, depending on
movement and seasonality of occurrence.
Abundance: Abundant (A) -
Mean population is more than 100, Less abundant (La) - Mean population is 50 to
100, Frequent (F) - Mean population is 25 to 50, Less frequent (Lf) - Mean
population is 5 to 25, Scarce (Sc) - Mean population is less than 5.
Occurrence: Out of 24
visits: Fairly Common (FC) - Sighted on 22 to 24 visits, Common (C) - Sighted
on 14 to 21 visits, Occasional (O) - Sighted on 7 to 13 visits, Rare (r) - Sighted on less than 7 visits.
Breeding: Breeder (B) -
Birds observed to breed or showing evidence (nests or newly fledged chick(s)
recorded) of breeding in THf. Non-breeder (NB), Breeding Probable (BP) - Birds that were observed to
breed throughout Gujarat yet no evidence of their breeding observed in THf,
Breeding Possible (PB) and (?) - Not confirmed.
Feeding habit: Based on
observation: Insectivore (IN), Frugivore (FR), Granivore (GR), Piscivore (PI),
Omnivore (OM), Carnivore (CR).
Results
Taranga Hill-forest has atleast 90
species of birds belonging to 11 orders, 33 families and 68 genera (Table
1). Common Hoopoe, Blue-cheeked
Bee-eater, Isabelline Wheatear, Black Redstart, Common Redstart, Common
Stonechat, Paddyfield Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and White Wagtail were winter
migrants; Pied-crested Cuckoo was monsoon migrant and European Roller was
passage migrant, whereas Asian Paradise-flycatcher and Crested Bunting were
vagrants. Red-vented Bulbul and Rock
Pigeon were most abundant. Passage
migrant and vagrant species were rare. According to Grimmett et al. (1998), White-naped Tit (Parus nuchalis)
a globally threatened and endemic resident has been found as local migrant,
scarce in number, common in occurrence and breeder in the tropical thorn-scrub
forest habitat of THf. Plum-headed
Parakeet may be a breeding possible species. Passeriformes was the largest family the next being Ciconiiformes. Distribution of number of species with genus,
families and orders, and status of avifauna recorded at Taranga Hill-forest is
presented in Table 2.
Discussion
So far, 146 bird species only
have been recorded in Aravallis by different authors. In comparison to other
places studied during last decades avian diversity is observed poor, because
Aravallis are not on the migratory route or landing site of migratory birds
(Prakash & Singh 1995). In addition, anthropogenic factors, presence of
predators and loss of vegetation may be having a telling effect. In Abu hill
(Aravalli ranges) area also, Prakash & Singh (1995) reported a similar
condition. All common residents appear to be adapted to the prevailing
conditions. Insectivorous birds were recorded more throughout the year.
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