Inventory of Migratory Water birds in the coastal areas of Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India.

Abstract

The present study was done on migratory water birds in the coastal and surrounding areas of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India from July 2020 to June 2022. A total number of 51 migratory water bird species belonging to 7 orders and 10 families were recorded during this study. Among the recorded species 45 species were the Least Concern (LC) and 4 were Near Threatened (NT) and 1 species each were Vulnerable (VU) and Endangered (EN). Scolopacidae was represented as highest family of 16 species because aggregation of migratory waders birds during winter season. The overall Shannon Diversity Index (H’) was 0.892 and the Shannon Evenness (J’) value was 0.226. The Simpson’s Diversity Index (D) was 0.286. All the diversity Index were lowest because of dominating Lesser Whisting-duck Dendrocygna javanica (Horsfield, 1821) (9015) aggregate in the coastal wetlands and bheries during winter season. In future more focus will be on this areas as there are many places still not properly explored and several wetlands which need to be studied in a thorough manner for a better understanding about the migratory avian diversity of this area.