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Study of winter avifauna diversity from a man-made reservoir in the West Bengal, India
Debayan Gayen, Biswajit Mukherjee, Sanchari Sarkar, Bappa Goswami, Sagar Adhurya, Moitreyee Chakrabarty,
Volume 4, Issue 1 (3-2022)
Abstract
The present study was conducted to determine the winter avifauna diversity of the Bakreswar Reservoir, Birbhum district, West Bengal from November 2017 to February 2021 using point count and opportunistic spotting. A total of 174 species of birds belonging to 18 orders, 47 families and 115 genera were noted during the study of which the family Anatidae was the most dominant family with 21 species, followed by the Accipitridae with 19 species, and the Motacillidae and Ardeidae with 10 species each. The Lesser whistling teal Dendrocygna javanica, Red-crested pochard Netta rufina and Bar-headed goose Anser indicus were the most abundant species during the winter months. Four Vulnerable species and five Near Threatened species were also recorded in the study area. Various diversity indices indicated that the species assemblage in 2019–2020 was more diverse than other years. Some species, such as the Common shelduck Tadorna tadorna (Linnaeus, 1758), Swinhoe’s minivet Pericrocotus cantonensis Swinhoe, 1861, Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (Linnaeus, 1758), Pallas’ gull Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus (Pallas, 1773), Black-headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766), Hen harrier Circus cyaneus (Linnaeus, 1766) and Bonelii’s eagle Aquilla fasciata Vieillot, 1822, are recorded for the first time from this region. Various threats like habitat destruction, habitat degradation and hunting of migratory and threatened birds pose the major problems in the study location.

Diet of the Merlin Falco columbarius Linnaeus on winter foraging grounds in Western India
Devvratsinh Mori, Raju Vyas, Gourav Dadhich,
Volume 6, Issue 2 (6-2024)
Abstract
The Merlin Falco columbarius, is a small falcon widely distributed across Europe, Asia, and North America. Merlin falcons are winter visitors to north India. They occur from an arid area in Gujarat to far northeast Arunachal Pradesh. Here, we present details of the Merlin's diet on winter foraging grounds in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Western India, based on a combination of direct observations from 2009 to 2023 and secondary data extracted from various social media platforms. A total of 99 hunting events of Merlin with their prey bird were collected from the study areas, including 39 generated from direct observation of falcon hunting and 60 images of falcons with prey items acquired from various electronic media. The higher number (72) of falcon hunting events were noted from Gujarat, while a lower number (27) of observations were noted from Rajasthan. Of the total of 99 hunting events, 83 were carried out by males, 11 by females, and 5 juvenile falcons observed hunting. The hunting times of the falcons were noted in the morning (67%), in the evening (28%), and the least (5%) were recorded in midday periods. Merlins hunted and consumed 17 different types of smaller birds belonging to seven families; the highest number (45.45%) of prey items were the Greater Short-toed Lark, Calandrella brachydactyla, from Family Alaudidae and the second highest prey species (7%) was the Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica, Family Hirundinidae. Most of the prey birds were larks of different species (70.70%), with the remaining prey birds in very low numbers. However, the present study supports an earlier study stating that a higher portion of smaller migratory birds are in the diets of Merlin falcons.

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