Species diversity, conservation status and feeding habitate of Avifauna in Waraseoni Tehsil of Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Avian biodiversity is not evenly distributed around the earth and their populations are declining due to anthropogenic (deforestation, water contamination, urbanisation, pollutions, pesticides etc.) as well as natural (climate change) causes. Furthermore, Birds are employed as a bioindicator because they are very sensitive to environmental changes. Therefore, there is a great need to know the number/diversity of birds in a given area. Hence, a study was done to obtain the data related to avian diversity in Waraseoni Tehsil of Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. A total of 174 species of avifauna (representing 60 families and 19 orders) were identified for the present research. The largest number of species (75), maximum species percentage (41.21%), and maximum family number (27) were noted in the Passeriformes order. In migratory status, 146 species were identified as resident, whereas 28 species (24 WM and 4 SM) were found as migratory out of the 174 species. Moreover, 167 species (or 96%) were classified as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN status, five species (Ciconia episcopus, Prinia familiaris, Threskiornis melanocephalus, Psittacula eupatria, and Anhinga melanogaster) were judged to be near threatened (NT) and two species (Grus Antigone and Sterna aurantia) were found to be vulnerable (VU). The majority of species were found to be omnivorous (49), followed by insectivorous (47), carnivorous (46), granivorous (11), frugivorous (5), herbivorous (2) and nactivorous (2) in feeding pattern. In this study, the locality of different birds species in a specific geographical area shows that Waraseoni tehsil has full of avian biodiversity. This study recommends that the government should make special efforts to conserve birds and take efforts to stop their hunting by villagers/tribal people in this area.