Abstract
Birds are ecological indicators of ecosystem health. Baseline information on bird diversity are, therefore, important for ecological monitoring. Such information is, however, sorely lacking for many areas outside the protected areas. Here, we explore the avian diversity and present a comprehensive checklist for the non-protected regions of Trashiyangtse District in northeastern Bhutan. We also categorise the bird species by their residency pattern, feeding guilds, abundance, and IUCN Red List status. We conducted an avifauna exploration for a period of four years from 2017 to 2020, mostly through opportunistic encounters coinciding with regular field visits. We recorded a total of 273 bird species belonging to 173 genera, 69 families and 19 orders. Passeriformes was the most dominant order with 41 families and 174 species and Muscicapidae was the most dominant family with 12 genera and 32 species. Most birds were altitudinal migrants (39%), insectivorous (45%), and occasional (44%) in terms of residency pattern, feeding guild, and abundance, respectively. Only one species (Ardea insignis) was listed as Critically Endangered and one (Haliaeetus leucoryphus) as Endangered. Our study identified the non-protected regions of Trashiyangtse District as an important bird diversity area in Bhutan.
Highlights
The land cover in the non-protected region of Trashiyangtse is dominated by forest cover (70%) which is composed of major forest types of fir forest, mixed conifer forest (MCF), pine forest, mixed pine-cool broadleaved forest, chirpine forest, cool broadleaved forest (CBF), alpine shrubs, alpine meadows, and a few plantations (Koirala et al 2021; FRMD 2017)
We recorded a total of 273 bird species belonging to 173 genera, 69 families, and 19 orders in the outside protected region of Trashiyangtse District (Table 1)
Our species richness was comparatively lower than in the remaining areas of the district encompassed by Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary (BWS) where a total of 355 species have been recorded (BWS 2018)
Summary
Birds are the best known group of animal taxa at the global level, with the most extended time series data available (James et al 2017). Bird diversity in non-protected regions of Trashiyangtse District, Bhutan
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