Preliminary survey of the avian species in and around the Vihirgaon reservoir of Ralegaon tehsil, Dist Yavatmal

This paper aims to present the preliminary study of the diversity of avian species in and around Vihirgaon reservoir situated in the Ralegaon tehsil, Dist Yavatmal. Situated in the semi-arid region the reservoir is an important for the wide range of bird’s species including resident and the migratory species. The field survey for the avian species was conducted for the period of eight months from December 2023 to July 2024. During this study periods of eight months total 27 species of birds were documented belonging to 11 orders and 20 families out of which the order passeriformes was found to be dominant have 10 species followed by the order Ciconiformes which have 05 species followed by order coraciiform, charadriiformes, Coliforms have 02 species each followed by order Psittaciformes, Anseriformes, Gruiformes, galliformes, columbiformes, Suliformes have 01 species each. There has been a limited research in this region on the avian species and this is the first ever study on the birds species of the Vihirgaon reservoir and would help in exploring the bird’s diversity of this reservoir in future.