Avian Diversity of Kidoor, a Village in the Lateritic Midlands of Kasaragod District, North Kerala

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335751660 Avian Diversity of Kidoor, a village in the lateritic midlands of Kasaragod district, North Kerala Article · September 2019 CITATIONS READS 0 85 4 authors, including: Maxim Rodrigues Prashantha Krishna M C Mangalore university BASF SE 17 PUBLICATIONS 2 CITATIONS 2 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Raju Stiven Crasta 2 PUBLICATIONS 1 CITATION SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Kasaragod Birds View project Kasaragod Frogs View project All content following this page was uploaded by Maxim Rodrigues on 11 September 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Avian Diversity of Kidoor, a village in the lateritic midlands of Kasaragod district, North Kerala Maxim Rodrigues*¹, Prashantha Krishna², Raju Kidoor² and Rayan Pradeep³ ¹Kollangana house, Kallakatta Post, Kasaragod-671123, [email protected] ²Sri Durgaprasada Mani house, Post Permude, Kasaragod-671324, email [email protected] ²Holy Family School, Kumbla, email [email protected] ³Bejappe house, Kidoor Post, Kumbla 671321 email [email protected] Abstract groups of vertebrates in the world. Bird studies help in understanding the habitat The avian diversity in Kidoor, Kasaragod and distribution of each of the species and district of north Kerala was documented helps in their conservation. Kasaragod from September 2016 to December 2018. A district of north Kerala has extensive flat- total of 156 species belonging to 18 orders topped lateritic areas in the midlands. and 56 families were documented. The This landscape has sparse vegetation checklist of birds including the Orange- and is highly heterogeneous in soil type, breasted Green Pigeon Treron bicinctus a ecological conditions of land and other rare and patchily distributed species in patterns (Nair, 2011). Diverse type of habitat Kerala is presented. might account for diverse type of species (Lorenzon et al. 2016). Studies on species Introduction diversity are essential to understand the health of the ecosystem, which will help Avifauna is one among the well-studied to plan conservation strategies for this MALABAR TROGON 44 # Vol. 16 [3 ] Shaheen Falcon : Roshan Kamath # Vol. 16 [3 ] 45 MALABAR TROGON 1 1. Orange-breasted Green Pigeon | : Raju Kidoor 2. Lesser Sand Plover | : Maxim Rodrigues 3 3. Indian Nightjar | : Maxim Rodrigues 2 MALABAR TROGON 46 # Vol. 16 [3 ] Thick-billed Flowerpecker : Prashantha Krishna M C # Vol. 16 [3 ] 47 MALABAR TROGON unique ecosystem. This habitat does not to December 2018. Birds and their activities come under any protected area network. were recorded mainly during the morning In recent years, some studies were done in and evening hours as well as other time of the field of avian diversity of certain parts of the day and some times in the night to record Kasaragod district (Rodrigues, 2017; 2018). nocturnal species. All these observations Here, an attempt was made to study the bird were uploaded in eBird.org. Nikon (20x50) diversity in Kidoor village of the district. and Olympus (8x40) binoculars and Canon SX 420 IS camera were used for field Study area observations and documentation. The birds Kidoor (12.63°N, 74.98°E) is located in Kumbla were identified using standard field guides Grama Panchayath. The study area consists like Ali (2002) and Grimmett et al. (2011). of lateritic plains, paddy fields, well wooded Results areas, arecanut and coconut plantations and wetlands including the parts of Shiriya A total of 156 species of birds were observed River. (Table 1), which composed of 18 orders and 56 families (Praveen et al. 2018) including Methodology Passeriformes (77 spp), Accipitriformes The study was conducted by Area Count & Charadriiformes (10 spp each) and Method (eBird, 2019) from September 2016 Pelecaniformes (9 spp). Out of the total, 152 Figure 1. MALABAR TROGON 48 # Vol. 16 [3 ] species fall in the Least Concern category species (House Crow Corvus splendens) is in of the IUCN red List. Woolly-necked Schedule 5. Stork Ciconia episcopus is categorized as In 2016 the first year of the study, 84 species Vulnerable and other three species are were recorded. The species count rose to categorized as Near Threatened viz., Black- 152 in 2017, indicating the good diversity headed Ibis Threskiornis melanocephalus, of birds and also as a result of intensified Oriental Darter Anhinga melanogaster birding effort; in 2018 four more species and Grey-headed Bulbul Brachypodius were added to the checklist. We can see a priocephalus (IUCN 2019). surge in the graph from 2016 to 2017, the Grey-fronted Green Pigeon Treron affinis, graph then levels off indicating that almost Nilgiri Flowerpecker Dicaeum concolor, all species of birds of the study area had Flame-throated Bulbul Pycnonotus gularis, been recorded (Fig. 1). But there are chances Grey-headed Bulbul, Rufous Babbler Argya for finding some of the rare winter visitors subrufa and Malabar Starling Sturnia blythii in the coming years. are the Western Ghats endemics seen here. Twelve species of this are included in The species diversity as well as checklists Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) uploaded (effort) in each month are shown Act 1972: Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus, in Fig. 2. The maximum checklists were Peregrine Falcon (Shaheen) Falco peregrinus uploaded in the months from November to perigrinator and also 10 other Accipitrids; March. The least number of checklists were 131 species are in Schedule 4 and one uploaded in the monsoon season during Figure 2. # Vol. 16 [3 ] 49 MALABAR TROGON Figure 3. Common Birds of Kidoor Bird Species and their frequencies in different seasons Figure 4. Bird Frequency in the summer months MALABAR TROGON 50 # Vol. 16 [3 ] Figure 5. Bird Frequency in the monsoon months Figure 6. Bird Frequency in the winter months June to August. Comparatively less number presence of migratory species. of species was observed in monsoon as only the resident birds were present whereas In Fig. 3, the x-axis shows the bird species in the winter months maximum number and y-axis shows the frequency i.e. the of species was recorded because of the percentage of checklist in which a species # Vol. 16 [3 ] 51 MALABAR TROGON is reported. could find that this species occurred less frequently in the time of peak monsoon, Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus similar trend was observed in Mysore bird was reported in maximum number of atlas too (Praveen J, pers. comm. dated 13th checklists, followed by White-cheeked June 2019; Bird Count India, 2019). Barbet Psilopogon viridis, Green Bee- eater Merops orientalis, Red-vented Bulbul Discussion Pycnonotus cafer, Black Drongo Dicrurus The status of birds was classified mainly macrocercus, Red-wattled Lapwing Vanellus based on the percentage of checklists in indicus, Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis, which a species was reported and also Rufous Treepie Dendrocitta vagabunda, based on the field experience. If, a species House Crow Corvus splendens and Brahminy was recorded in large number of checklists Kite Haliastur indus. These birds can be and seen throughout the year, that species considered as very common in Kidoor, was considered as common. If a species because they are reported in high frequency was observed irregularly and recorded in than other birds. less number of checklists, the bird was considered as uncommon. If a species was recorded only in very few checklists, then it was considered as rare. In the case Figures 4, 5 and 6 show the frequency of of migratory species, the same criteria some common birds in different season of were applied taking into consideration the the year. months of the year when they were present here. at the study site. The migratory or Red-whiskered Bulbul and White-cheeked resident status of the birds are given as per Barbet were the most common species in all their status in Kerala. seasons and occupied the first and second Orange-breasted Green Pigeon, a rare position respectively. Red-wattled Lapwing, bird in Kerala (Sashikumar et al. 2011) Rufous Treepie, Black Drongo and Greater was observed throughout the year except Coucal also were observed commonly in August and September months. This in all three seasons. Red-vented Bulbul, must be one of the few locations in Kerala Brahminy Kite, House Crow and Green Bee- where this species has been recorded eater were common for at least two seasons. regularly, throughout the year. However, Interestingly Green Bee-eater was not at all since 2017, there were few more sightings recorded in peak monsoon months of June of Orange-breasted Green Pigeons in few to August. When this fact was cross checked other locations of the district with similar with the eBird data for north Kerala and habitat. Yellow-legged Green Pigeon Treron coastal districts of south Karnataka, we phoenicopterus was observed regularly MALABAR TROGON 52 # Vol. 16 [3 ] in fruiting trees of the lateritic midland Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva was observed viz., Macaranga peltata, Mangifera indica, from June to October 2017, up to a flock Artocarpus heterophyllus, Ficus religiosa, of 23 individuals. Lesser Sand Plover etc. This species was observed all through Charadrius mongolus was observed from the year except in May, June and July. None July to September 2017, only in the lateritic of the green pigeons were seen nesting in patches. Interestingly, these species were the study area. Grey-fronted Green Pigeon not observed anywhere in the study area and Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica were in winter. A few individuals of Little-ringed comparatively rare. Plover Charadrius dubius were also found along with these two species of waders. Regarding nocturnal birds, Jerdon’s Over-summering of these birds have been Nightjar Caprimulgus atripennis was regularly reported from Madayipara, in common and Indian Nightjar Caprimulgus Kannur district where similar habitat is asiaticus was uncommon.

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