Activity Budgets of Sympatric Birds in Banni Region of Kachchh District, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Banni is an ecologically important area with respect to the presence of large number of bird species and their distribution in different types of habitat patches. Animals are engaged in various activities in different ways to survive successfully in different habitat condition. In view of this, the present study conducted for observing the activities of five sympatric birds in Banni area to understand their involvement in various basic activities. The activities of five sympatric birds, commonly found in Banni area were observed in pre-designed transect by applying scan sampling method. It was observed that, most of the individuals of all sympatric bird engaged in flying and resting except short-toed lark, having very less proportion of individual engaged in resting. It was also observed that, a small number of individuals of all sympatric bird engaged in walking activity. A significant difference found in all activities recorded between the sympatric birds of Banni except the walking activity. In conclusion, the result of the activity budget highlights that the sympatric bird were more involved in flying and resting, and less involve in walking and fighting due to the group size and presence of minimum human disturbances in Banni. The present study also suggests that more intensive study is needed to find out the activity variation according to the habitat and group size of birds.