Distribution of avifauna on twenty-one islands of the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, India

Abstract

Every research endeavour must start with closing the information gap about species distribution and biodiversity systematically. Even though enough avifaunal research has been done on the Gulf of Mannar, southeastern India, there have been limited studies about the avifauna from all 21 islands except two. Increasing species occurrence data on distribution from all the islands is highlighted for the future conservation plans for this Important Bird Area. We provide an updated and detailed checklist and distribution of bird groups for all islands individually from a sampling period of 2015–2022. A total of 96 bird species belonging to 34 families from 13 orders were recorded from all the islands; of which 58 species were waterbirds and other terrestrial ones. Of the 29 shorebird species recorded, one is Endangered and seven are Near Threatened by IUCN Red List. Some of the earlier recorded species, not seen in our survey, are not annotated as no record exists for the last decade.

Tweeting Trends: Unmasking the Birds of Madurai South, Tamil Nadu, India

“…The checklist was prepared using standardized common and scientific names of the birds [13]. Feeding guild analysis was conducted with reference to existing literature [14,15,6,7]. To establish relative abundance, the frequency of sightings was considered, categorizing birds as per the criteria of MacKinnon & Phillips [16]: common (C) if sighted from seven to nine times; un-common (UC) if sighted from three to six times; rare (R) if sighted once or twice across various seasons throughout the study.…”

“…Surveys can be used to collect information on where birds are in relation to different habitats, and so assess habitat associations. There are limited research on the bird population in Madurai, with only a few older studies available (Nichols 1944(Nichols a,b, 1945 and recent investigations focusing mainly on urban areas (Sathasivam, 2015) or thorn forest environments (Roopha et al 2022) or surveys in selected localities (Rajagopal, 2022) or wetland study restricted to only Samanatham [6,7] Baseline data from any site is essential for any long-term conservation efforts [8,9]. Keeping this in view, a survey of avifaunal diversity was carried out in the five chosen wetlands in Madurai South namely Madakulam, Thenkarai, Koothiyarkundu, Avaniyapuram, and Samanatham.…”

“…These five sites have trees, shrubs, wetlands, agricultural land, and grassland surrounding them. Among the five study sites, only Samanatham has a published checklist of birds [6,7] of recent times. All the other wetlands remain with no published checklist.…”

An avifaunal checklist of the Bani Wildlife Sanctuary, Jammu & Kashmir, India

“…In understanding the consequences of habitat degradation and climate change on a species and ecosystem, baseline data is necessary before initiating any conservation effort (Llanos et al 2011). Bird surveys provide valuable information about basic and applied ecology and help designate conservation priority sites (Daniels et al 1991;Peterson et al 2000;Byju et al 2023). Biodiversity inventories/checklists serve as crucial repositories for documenting species distribution, biogeography, and conservation status.…”

An annotated checklist of the avifauna of Karangadu mangrove forest, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, with notes on the site’s importance for waterbird conservation

“…In the Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas of the Gulf of Mannar & Palk Bay regions, previous studies have been carried out from Rameswaram Island (Biddulph 1938) and Mandapam & its neighbouring islands (Balachandran 1990). Byju et al (2023) described the avifaunal distribution on the 21 islands located in the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve.…”