4.0 BIRD DIVERSITY – Bannerghatta National Park

Vegetation:Vegetation is mostly scrub jungle, interspersed with rocky outcrops and deciduous forest patches. The area is surrounded by crop fields, human habitation and water bodies of which few are perennial. These landscape elements harbour several species of birds and the avian diversity proves rich due to available of proper desired habitats and surplus food.
Materials and Method:Bird species were enumerated through all out search and also opportunistic survey techniques in select localities of the national park. Location occurrences of these species were recorded using GPS (Global positioning system),binoculars, and camera. Table 1 and Figure 1 lists the sampled locations.
Results: Tables 2-4 give the list of birds sighted during 14-16 Nov 2016 and Figure 2 gives the glimpse of select birds.  About 80 species of birds were recorded (table 5), which include migrating birds of winter such as  Golden Oriole, Forest Wagtail, Rosy Starling, Booted Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Ultramarine Flycatcher, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Pallid Harrier and Wire Tailed Swallow. The presence of these bird species highlights of rich habitatswith the supporting niche. Table 6 gives the consolidated list of birds compiled from literatures.

Figure 1: Locations sampled in BNP for bird diversity.

Table 2: Bird species documented on 14/11/2015

Ashy Wood Swallow-Artamus fuscus	Black Eagle-Ictinaetus malaiensis
Common Hoopoe-Upupa epops
Indian Roller-Coracias benghalensis	Pallid harrier-Circus macrourus

Purple Rumped Sunbird-Leptocoma zeylonica	Red Whiskered Bulbul-Pycnonotus jocosus
Common Iora-Aegithina tiphia
Rose Ringed Parakeet- Psittacula krameri	Shikara-Accipiter badius

Small Green Bee eater-Merops orientalis	House Sparrow-Passer domesticus
Scaly-breasted munia-Lonchura punctulata
Tailor Bird-Orthotomus sutorius	White Throated Kingfisher-Halcyon smyrnensis

5.0 Faunal Diversity of BNP and Buffer area

BNP is a terminal point on the northern side of Mysore Elephant Reserve, inhabits the largest land mammal - Asian Elephants that migrate from the adjacent Cauvery wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka and Krishnagiri & Hosur Forest Division of Tamilnadu which is in contiguam with the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve carved out of Western Ghats forest at Nilgiris stretching through Malaimahadeshwara hills, BiligiriRanga Temple Sanctuary, Kollegal Forest Division and Sathyamangala Forests of Tamilnadu. Faunal diversity in BNP are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Faunal Diversity in BNP

6.0 Butterfly Diversity in Bannerghatta National Park

Vegetation:Vegetation is mostly scrub jungle, interspersed with rocky outcrops and deciduous forest patches. The area is surrounded by crop fields, human habitation and water bodies of which few are perennial.  These vegetation types along with several host plants and nectar plants harbour several species of butterflies and their diversity proves rich due to available of proper desired habitats and surplus food. Presence of specific host plants attracts specific butterflies to breed.
Materials and Method:Butterflyspecies were documented at locations marked in Figure 1 through all out search and also opportunistic methods using GPS (Global Positioning System), camera and pictorial guides.

Figure 1: Butterfly sampled locations

Figure 2: Butterfliesof BNP

Common Banded Peacock-Papiliocrino	Common Sailor-Neptishylas Linnaeus
Pioneer Butterfly-Anaphaeisaurota
Zebra Blue-Leptotesplinius	Pea Blue-Lampidesboeticus

Forget Me Not-Catochrysopsstrabo	Grass Jewel-Freyeriatrochylus
Common Pierrot-Castaliusrosimon
Common Cerulean-Jamidesceleno	African Babul Blue-Azanusjesous