BIRDS

Birds are one of the most widely studied and the best biological indicators because they are easy to indentify, compared to many of the other class of organisms and virtually inhabit all the kinds of habitat. Because of their omnipresence, the attractive colour and the characteristic vocal calls, they have attracted many of the scientist and amateurs in field of ornithology and today the best of the field guides are available for identifying birds.

Fig.5 : Body parts of Birds
Image Source: http://www.kolkatabirds.com/topography.htm

Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve is known for its rich bird diversity 197 species of birds have been recorded from the Anshi National Park (Uttangi, year 1994). The reserve has good population of four types of Hornbills- Common Grey Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Great pied hornbill (NT*) and Malabar Pied hornbill (NT*).

The sampling protocol for bird involves walking along a transect route for a fixed time (1 hr) keeping the pace of walking as uniform as possible. The survey must begin in early morning as soon as sufficient light is available for identification of birds. The observer should record all the species encountered on the way seen or heard. The transect should not be biased towards easily approachable routes and must cover different habitats available (open land, farm land, deciduous forest, semi evergreen patch, riparian vegetation etc. It is important to make a rough sketch of the unidentified birds for later identification.

The list of birds observed during the workshop is given in table 6.

Table 5: Data sheet for bird survey

Table 6:  Birds in and round Kulgi Nature camp and Nagazari valley