- inventory, notable sightings, and overview of seasonal changes in reporting frequency of bird species in an unprotected area of Himachal Pradesh, India

: Biodiversity of unprotected areas in the western Himalayan region is under threat. Despite this, it is poorly studied and documented. The citizen science platform eBird was used to record bird species of the unprotected Kanetiya area (Darbhog panchayat), Shimla, Himachal Pradesh from August 2019–2020. Reporting frequency using this data was calculated to represent an index of species abundance. This was calculated independently for each species across three seasons and reported as a metric that can be tracked over time. One-hundred-and-twenty-four (20% of the species from Himachal Pradesh) species of birds belonging to 13 orders and 43 families were recorded. Of these, 37 (30%) were recorded year-round and the remaining 87% (80%) were migratory. The checklist consisted of five species of high conservation concern and 22 species of moderate conservation concern. This checklist also provides insights into the distributions of some species whose ranges within India are not yet well defined (Northern Long-eared Owl Asio otus , Aberrant Bush Warbler Horornis flavolivaceus , Himalayan Owl Strix nivicolum ) and into migration through this part of the Himalaya (Black Stork Ciconia nigra ). Locals can be educated to upload short checklists for monitoring since they have helped the local forest department’s conservation efforts.


INTRODUCTION
Himachal Pradesh in the western Himalaya is home to several species of animals and plants. The protected area network of the state consists of five national parks, 26 wildlife sanctuaries, and three conservation reserves spread across 8,391 km 2 (Himachal Pradesh Forest Department 2022). Apart from this, several species are found in the unprotected region, which makes up more than 85% of the state. These include several endemic and threatened species like the Musk Deer Moschus moschiferus, Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichii, and Himalayan Yew Taxus wallichiana. Although unprotected areas of the western Himalaya support biodiversity, they are threatened by deforestation, habitat alteration and habitat fragmentation caused by the construction of roads and trails (Pandit et al. 2007;Pandit & Kumar 2013). Habitats of such areas may change or degrade completely, leading to extinctions even before the documentation of their biodiversity is complete (González-Oreja 2008). Conversion of natural habitat can specifically lead to local extinctions of specialist species across various taxa (Korkeamäki & Suhonen 2002;Munday 2004). For example, the Vulnerable Cheer Pheasant became locally extinct in Jaunaji, Himachal Pradesh, after grasslands were converted into agricultural lands (Kaul 2014). Medicinal plants like the Elephant's Foot Dioscorea deltoidea and Himalayan Yew are threatened with extinction due to overexploitation (IUCN 2008). In private landholdings of rural areas, local communities often burn grasses and understories to increase the yield of grass in summer (Garson et al. 1992). This endangers native grounddwelling birds and other fauna (Manupriya 2019).
Due to these concerns, scientists, conservation managers, and local communities must focus on monitoring and devising ways to conserve these habitats (Herremans 1998) and the species they support. This will require an inventory of taxa found in different regions (Llanos et al. 2011;Sharma et al. 2018) and an understanding of the effects of land use change on various floral and faunal communities.
Birds can be used as model taxa to understand the biodiversity health of an ecosystem (Eglington et al. 2012). This is because they play diverse roles in an ecosystem (e.g., pollinators, seed dispersers) (Garcia et al. 2010;Whelan et al. 2015) and have an intricate association with their environment. Subsequently, areas that support many birds of high conservation concern can be prioritized for conservation. Repeated surveys can also draw attention to the decline in functional diversity of bird species from an area. This can further highlight the degradation in ecosystem services like decomposition, pollination, and seed dispersal (Şekercioğlu et al. 2004).
An informative baseline checklist of the birds of the human-dominated Kanetiya area in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh is presented in this study. This landscape lies in Darbhog panchayat, Shimla Rural tehsil. It lies outside the protected area network and is shaped by various anthropogenic activities of the residents. Reporting frequency has been used to provide an index of the seasonal abundance of each species. This can be used as a baseline to assess the change in species composition with time.

Study area
This study uses checklists submitted by the author [ST] while visiting Seri, Bagdra, Jalpan, Kool, and Undala villages and their surroundings. These villages lie within the Kanetiya region ( Figure 1) named after the local deity Kanetiya Maharaj. The region comes under the jurisdiction of the Darbhog panchayat, Shimla rural tehsil.
The surveyed area spreads across 3.5 km 2 . Its elevation ranges from c. 1, 480-2,190 m, between 31.0340-31.0115 °N and 77.2764-77.3004 °E. A tributary of the river Yamuna flows through the lowest part of the sampled area. The landscape is highly fragmented and comprises plant communities either dominated by Banj Oak Quercus leucotrichophora, Deodar Cedrus deodara, or grasslands scattered with Chir Pine Pinus roxburghii. The area has a temperate climate and the temperature ranges from -9-31 °C. Snowfall occurs in the area almost every year, and in January 2020, it reached an eightyear high (Press Trust of India 2020). Residents used the area for fodder collection, resin, wood collection, cattle grazing and religious purposes. In June 2019, a forest patch of the area suffered from a fire that had spread to it from nearby grasslands.
The area lies 22 km from Chail Wildlife Sanctuary, 26 km from Churdhar Wildlife Sanctuary, and 8 km from Shimla Water Catchment Wildlife Sanctuary (Google Earth Pro 2020). Though it lies outside sanctuaries and national parks, the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department in cooperation from residents has reintroduced the Vulnerable Cheer Pheasant in grasslands between Seri and Undala villages (IUCN 2020b). The reintroduction site consists of a demarcated intensive management area that spreads across one square kilometer and consists of grasslands and demarcated protected forests.

Data collection
The bird checklists were uploaded using the eBird mobile app while visiting the region between August 2019 and August 2020. When all identified species were reported, the checklists were deemed complete; however, if some species were deliberately omitted, they were considered incomplete. Along with these details, the checklists included the date, starting time, duration, observation type (stationary/traveling) and track record. Species were recognized visually or by call, and checked with field guides (Grimmett et al. 2011;Rasmussen & Anderton 2012) and the Merlin picture identification app (The Cornell Laboratory 2020) for confirmation. Photographs and call recordings of unidentified species were shared with experts for identification.
Around 341 complete checklists from the eBird website were downloaded and combined with 11 complete checklists uploaded by other eBird users who visited the area during the study period. If a checklist had been shared with multiple observers, the version with the maximum number of species was chosen. In addition to the eBird collection, a local reported one species (Cattle Egret Bulcus ibis). A total of 212 checklists (60%) were less than an hour long, 107 checklists ranged in length from one to two hours and 24 checklists, each lasting between two and three hours. Two checklists were 4 to 5 hours long, while seven checklists ranged in length 3-4 hours. The checklists concerned the three seasons. These were the summer season (April through June; effort: 80 checklists), the monsoon season (July through September; effort: 37 checklists), and the winter season (October through March; effort: 235 checklists). The dataset included 100 stationary checklists (summer 22, monsoon 7, and winter 71) and 252 traveling checklists (summer 58, monsoon 29, and winter 165). Throughout the course of the research, 346.28 hours were put in (summer: 76.13; monsoon: 27.12; winter: 243.03), and 129.09 km were traveled (summer: 23.6; monsoon: 22.96; winter: 82.53).

Data analysis
Microsoft Excel 2007 was used to organize the data and calculate the reporting frequency of each species across different seasons. Reporting frequency is the percentage of checklists in which a species was recorded over a given period ((number of checklists a species was recorded during a season/number of total complete checklists reported during the season) X 100) (Viswanathan et al. 2020;eBird 2021c). Reporting frequency was calculated for each species separately for three seasons.
Species were classified as 'year-round' if they were reported across all three seasons, and 'seasonal' if they were detected only during certain seasons. India checklist v4.0 (Praveen et al. 2020) and IUCN Red List (IUCN 2020a) were used to refer to the taxonomy of species and their threat status, respectively. State of India's Birds Report (SoIB 2020a) was used to categorize birds as per their status of conservation concern. This report used short- term and long-term population trends of species to categorize them as species of high, moderate, and low conservation concern.

RESULTS
One-hundred-and -twenty-four bird species belonging to 13 orders and 43 families were recorded. Of these, 37 were present year-round and 87 were seasonal. 74, 57, and 101 species were recorded in summer, monsoon, and winter, respectively.
About 22 species of moderate conservation concern were identified (SoIB 2020a). In all three seasons (summer, monsoon, and winter), the Himalayan Griffon Gyps himalayensis had the highest reported frequency. In the summer and monsoon seasons, the Upland Pipit Anthus sylvanus was seen to report a frequency of 52.5 and 32.43, respectively. Other species of moderate conservation concern included the Greyheaded Canary-flycatcher Culicicapa ceylonensis, Longtailed Minivet Pericrocotus ethologus, Lemon-rumped Warbler Phylloscopus chloronotus, and Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus, all of which had very low reporting frequencies in all three seasons (<10) ( Table 1).
Of the remaining 97 species, 89 were of low conservation concern and eight had not been categorized.
Of the year-round species, 17 had the highest reporting frequency during summer (Figure 2A), 12 during the monsoon ( Figure 2B) and eight during the winter season ( Figure 2C).

Significant sightings
The following records are significant as they provide  TT   Table 1. Checklist of bird species recorded in the Kanetiya region (3.5 km²) from August 2019-2020 along with the IUCN category (IUCN 2020a), category of conservation concern (SoIB 2020a) and reporting frequency across seasons. Other bird watchers and the author recorded wild individuals 16 times (distinguish from reintroduced individuals based on leg bands) using eBird (eBird 2022b). Sanjeev Kumar (a resident) also photographed three individuals on 30 December 2019. The highest count of birds was 12, recorded on 23 December 2019 (Tiwari 2019e). The absence of this species during monsoon may be either due to local migration of the species from the area or because Cheer Pheasants are less vocally active outside the breeding season (Gaston 1980). This grassland bird is found where areas are disturbed naturally or anthropogenically (Kaul et al. 2022). Cattle grazing and grassland burning in the area help maintain the habitat which supports this species.
Koklass Pheasant Pucrasia macrolopha: On 10 December 2019, Thakur (2019) observed a male Koklass Pheasant Pucrasia macrolopha about 100 m from the Kanetiya Temple (height c. 2,200 m). According to BirdLife International (2016), this is not far from the species' lowest elevation range. Locals have regularly reported seeing it at an elevation of 300 m higher, suggesting that it may have locally relocated to this area.
Black Stork Ciconia nigra (Image 1B) was recorded on 15 May 2020 (Tiwari 2020e). It has isolated records in Himachal Pradesh (Grimmett et al. 2011). After 20 minutes of circling the area, it flew eastward, perhaps on its way back to its breeding grounds.
Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis (Image 1C): Mamta Thakur (resident) recorded one individual in the second week of January 2020. In this study, this species was identified by its yellow beak and differentiated from the Intermediate egret Ardea intermedia by its compact body. Though the species has few records from Shimla district (eBird 2022a) and is a resident in altitudinally lower areas of other districts (for e.g., Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Sirmaur) (Grimmett et al. 2011) this is the only record of the species from the Kanetiya area.
Himalayan Owl Strix nivicolum: The species was heard in Seri Village from a Pistacia integerrima tree on 4 May 2020 (Tiwari 2020c) and 7 May 2020 (Tiwari 2020d). The distribution of this species is not very well known as it has recently been split from the Tawny Owl Strix alco (Dixit et al. 2016).
Aberrant Bush Warbler Horornis flavolivaceus: Sharma (2020) reported the species on 20 February 2020 from the study area. BirdLife International (2017) record its occurrence to the eastern boundary of Himachal Pradesh and Grimmett et al. (2011) do not include Himachal Pradesh in the range of the species. Nevertheless, the species has records from Himachal Pradesh on eBird (eBird 2021a). It has records throughout the Himalayan region, the westernmost from Jammu & Kashmir (year 2019).
Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush Garrulax rufogularis (Image 3F): On 30 November 2019 (Tiwari 2019b), four individuals were found in bushes near the foot of a cliff that overhung a piece of grassland at a height of around 1,900 m. On the eBird platform (eBird 2022c), this is the species' fourth report from the Shimla District. The species is widespread in the eastern hills of India and the Himalaya, but its distribution in the western Himalaya is patchy (Grimmett et al. 2011). In Himachal Pradesh, there are more than 100 records, however, they are only found in Kangra (on the state's western border) and the territories around Shimla District (on the state's eastern border).
Wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria (Image 3G): One individual was recorded foraging on a rock surface along the road near Seri Village on 23 October 2019 (Tiwari 2019a). This species is found at high altitudes in the Himalaya (c. 3,300-5,000 m) throughout the year but is known to move towards lower elevations (up to c. 600m (eBird 2022e)) during the winter (Kirwan et al. 2020). Therefore, it could have been moving towards lower  (Tiwari 2020b). This species is a long-distant migrant. It winters (non-breeding season) in peninsular India and migrates to the trans-Himalayas, parts of Europe and North and Central Asia from mid-March to early May (SoIB 2020b; Tyler 2020). Therefore, these individuals could have been moving towards their breeding grounds. Table 1 presents a comprehensive checklist of bird species recorded in August 2019-2020 along with the IUCN category (IUCN 2020a), category of conservation concern (SoIB 2020a) and reporting frequency across seasons of each species.

DISCUSSION
The environment of the Kanetiya region is shaped by local practices such as grassland burning, cattle grazing, and resource collection. The effects of human activities on bird diversity in the Himalayan terrain can be understood by comparing it to surrounding protected areas. The locals often voluntarily mitigate fires that occur in forest patches. Furthermore, locals protect small swathes of forest known as Devta ka Jungle (sacred groves), which are devoted to regional deities. Customary laws protect these areas from exploitation and destruction Bisht & Ghildiyal 2007;Salick et al. 2007;Anthwal et al. 2010;Singh et al. 2019). These customary laws apply to the forest next to the Kanetiya temple as well, and the land is protected by the locals. The Cheer Pheasant Reintroduction Programme has been in progress since November 2019 in the designated protected forests and private grasslands close to Seri and Undala villages (IUCN 2020b). The local forest department's conservation program has received backing from the community, which has also taken part. The department could implement additional strategies that involve locals to promote conservation. This may include preparing them to submit simple bird checklists to eBird for monitoring.
Using the citizen science platform eBird, a list of 124 species was created across 3.5 km 2 with 39% of the species recorded from Shimla (eBird 2022d) and 20% of the species from Himachal Pradesh. This variety is brought about by the availability of several habitat types (Somveille et al. 2013;Dixit et al. 2016), elevation fluctuations, and unusual climatic conditions regarding temperature and moisture (Graham et al. 2014). Due to fewer visits to particular environments, some species may have been overlooked because of the non-systematic observations used to create this checklist.
This area is a breeding ground not only for the 37-year-round resident species but also for birds recorded only during the summer. This area might be serving as a passage to the wintering grounds for some species which were recorded at either a very low reporting frequency or only once at the onset of winter. These include Redheaded Vulture Sarcogyps calvus, White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Aberrant Bush Warbler Horornis flavolivaceus and Wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria.
Despite recording a high number of birds, some species that are recorded from nearby areas couldn't be recorded during the study period. These include the Green Bee-eater Merops orientalis, Blue-tailed Bee-eater Merops philippinus, Spot-winged Grosbeak Mycerobas melanozanthos, Black-and-yellow Grosbeak Mycerobas icterioides, Lesser Cuckoo Cuculus poliocephalus, Large Hawk Cuckoo Hierococcyx sparverioides and Asian Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus (eBird 2022d). While the Purple Sunbird Cinnyris asiaticus was recorded during the summer other sunbirds and flowerpeckers couldn't be recorded in any season. I also did not record the Black Kite Milvus migrans, which is frequently reported from the Shimla district (eBird 2021b). As per local testimony, the Chukar Partridge Alectoris chukar used to occur in the area but became locally extinct 10-15 years ago. Residents had also identified Indian Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone paradise in previous years, but it was not recorded during the study.
Some species were recorded only near the village houses. These include the Rock Pigeon Columba livia which was recorded across all three seasons at very low frequencies (Summer-2.5, monsoon-2.70, winter-0.85) and House Sparrow Passer domesticus which was recorded at slightly higher frequencies across seasons (summer-16.25, monsoon-10.81, winter-17.45). The Common Myna Acridotheres tristis was also recorded exclusively near village houses in the monsoon (2.70) and winter (2.98).
Most species recorded across all three seasons were rare (recorded with a low reporting frequency) ( Figure  3). This pattern is seen in many other studies conducted across various ecosystems (Brown 1984).
Though such non-systematically collected information is valuable (Barnes et al. 2015), the scope of studies based on opportunistic observations can be limited (Snäll et al. 2011;Bird et al. 2014;Henckel et al. 2020). Reporting frequency is a function of abundance and detectability of a species (SoIB 2020a), but as detectability of a species varies among observers with different abilities for different species, it cannot be used to assess the change in population sizes of birds. Therefore, this study only provides a baseline index of abundance across seasons.
A more systematic study based on consistent sampling protocol and effort can provide better information on the change in population of different species and can also be used to confirm true absences accurately (Thompson 2002).
A bird monitoring scheme focusing on unprotected areas can be developed by training bird watchers across the Himalaya to consistently record birds. This will require a simple and yet strict sampling design. Bird Count India (2021) is executing a similar effort at the national level as the Patch Monitoring Project. Such systemic surveys based on community participation can be more widespread and less resource-intensive (Neate-Clegg et al. 2020). They will also help create awareness and aid in conservation.