Avian diversity and damage potential in selected horticultural crops in and around Hisar
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Date
2022-09
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CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
The present investigation was carried out at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar and
nearby village Salemgarh for avian diversity, foraging behaviour, damage potential in selected
horticultural crops in and around Hisar along with isolation and characterization of bacteria from faecal
matter of frugivorous birds. During the study, total 101 bird‘s species belonging to 17 orders, 43
families and 86 genera of class aves were observed and identified. The species richness was recorded
maximum at farmland with 89 species followed by main campus with 84 species while 64 and 51
species were reported at Orchard 1 and Orchard 2 respectively. The major horticultural crops were
guava and ber and the maximum damage by birds was reported in ber crop at both the location,
followed by summer and winter guava crop and the damage was maximum at location-II as compared
to location-I. Rose-ringed Parakeet was the worst avian pest at both the location. The maximum
pestilence was caused by Rose-ringed Parakeet, followed by Alexandrine Parakeet, Red-vented Bulbul,
Brown headed Barbet and Western Koel in guava crop at location-I. The frugivorous species which
inflicted damage to guava crop were Rose-ringed Parakeet, followed by Alexandrine Parakeet, Red vented Bulbul at location-II. Rose-ringed Parakeet, Alexandrine Parakeet, Yellow footed-Green pigeon, Red-vented Bulbul and Brown headed Barbet were the major frugivorous bird species which
caused damage to ber crop at location-I and Rose-ringed Parakeet was the only species which caused
damage to ber crop at location-II. The bird damage was maximum, 18.74 and 17.33% in indian ber
crop during September, 2019 to March, 2020 and September, 2020 to March, 2021 respectively.
Bacterial isolates belonging to 15 genera and 14 species were isolated and identified from faecal matter
of frugivorous bird species. Pseudomonas was the most abundant and dominant bacteria among all the
29 isolates. The bacterial diversity was found higher in Red-vented Bulbul followed by Brown headed
Barbet, Alexandrine Parakeet and Rose-ringed Parakeet. A total of 6 species (Yellow-footed Green pigeon, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Alexandrine Parakeet, Red-vented Bulbul, Brown headed Barbet,
Western Koel) were recorded to feed on selected 13 crops in the study area which belongs to family
Columbiformes, Psittaciformes, Pycnonotidae, Megalaimidae and Cuculidae.