NARWADE & RAHMANI: Great Indian Bustard 71 Birds of the south-western Deccan Plateau region of Maharashtra, India, with special reference to the Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps Sujit S. Narwade & Asad R. Rahmani Sujit S. Narwade, & Rahmani, A. R., 2020. Birds of the south-western Deccan Plateau region of Maharashtra, India, with special reference to the Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps. Indian BIRDS 16 (3): 71–88. Sujit S. Narwade, Project Scientist, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 400001, Maharashtra, India. E-mail:
[email protected]. [Corresponding author] Asad Rahmani, Member of the Governing Council and Former Director, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 400001, Maharashtra, India. E-mail:
[email protected]. Manuscript received on 04 August 2019. Abstract In the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, Solapur, Maharashtra, and its surrounding Deccan Plateau landscape, we documented the status of 282 species of birds (254 by us, and 27 through an eBird checklist review); including fourteen Threatened, with special emphasis on the Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps, and eight Near-Threatened categories of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2020). The status of eight grassland obligatory species of Least Concern (IUCN 2020), such as larks (Alaudidae), Indian Courser Cursorius coromandelicus, and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles exustus are also discussed. Seasonal variation in bird richness at various habitats, encounter rate per hour for each species, and flock size of selected species have been provided. To understand deeper aspects about encounter rate and flock size in lark species, data were pulled out separately from the transect data.