Avian Diversity in Agricultural Landscape: Records from Burdwan, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Avian species assemblages are potential indicators of integrity and stability of ecosystem structure and functions. Characteristic avian fauna in landscapes enable predictions about the environmental state and possible deviations in the ecosystem functions. Documentation of avian species assemblages in different landscapes are therefore being emphasized from environmental monitoring perspective. As a primary effort, the present commentary depicts the avian species assemblage of agricultural landscapes, using Burdwan, West Bengal, India, as a study area. Employing line-transect method of continuous survey and opportunistic encounter, a total of 144 bird species under 51 families and 19 orders were recorded from the study area. The avian species richness was highest for the order Passeriformes followed by Charadriidae and rest 17 orders. Resident, local migrant and migrant species constituted 61.15, 31.65 and 7.20 % of the bird community, respectively. Most of the bird species (51.85 %) were associated consistently with the agricultural fields as their habitat followed by aquatic systems (29.20 %) and human habitat (18.98 %). The study records the presence of three species under IUCN Near Threatened category and many species exhibiting sparse population based on the encounter rate and number of individuals in the habitat. The observed richness of bird species in the study area calls for further studies on habitat preference, census and breeding biology to highlight species specific roles in ecosystem functions and sustenance of ecosystem services.