Bird community structure in urban, periurban and rural areas of Ludhiana
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Date
2016
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The major human activities that have transformed the earth include agriculture and urbanization. Habitat structure and complexity are two main components determining bird community and its diversity. The present study was conducted for a period of one year (March 2014-February 2015) to determine the bird community structure in urban, periurban and rural areas of Ludhiana. Highest species richness was recorded in periurban areas (23 species) followed by urban areas (21 species) and rural areas (19 species). Migrant bird species such as Common Hoopoe, Spot-billed Duck and White Wagtail were recorded from periurban and rural locations. House Crow and Blue Rock Pigeon were recorded to be most abundant in urban location while Cattle Egret was recorded to be most abundant in periurban and rural locations. Bird species such as Ashy Prinia, Brown-headed Barbet, Black-headed Munia and Yellow-legged green Pigeon were recorded to be least abundant during the study period. Insectivorous bird species recorded from urban, periurban and rural locations were six, seven and five respectively. Omnivorous bird species recorded from urban, periurban and rural locations were six, seven and seven respectively. Total of Granivorous bird species recorded from urban, periurban and rural locations were six, six and five respectively. Nests of Common Myna, House Crow, Rose-ringed Parakeet and Blue Rock Pigeon were recorded from urban location whereas nests of Hose Crow and Common Myna were recorded from periurban locations. Species diversity was recorded to be highest i.e. 2.61, 2.40 and 2.18 in the month of March (2014), January (2015) and June (2015) in urban, periurban and rural locations respectively. Species Evenness was recorded to be highest i.e 0.92, 0.94 in the month of February (2015) and November (2014) respectively from urban, periurban locations whereas it was recorded to be highest i.e 0.93 in two months of May (2014) and July (2014) in rural locations. It was concluded from the study that food availability is a key driver of differences in avian demography. However, better targeted research and monitoring is needed in the future for precised results.
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Keywords
Bird abundance, periurban, rural areas, species richness, species diversity, species evenness.