Study of Avian diversity and habitat associations in Kharepatan village of Western Ghats of Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, India

Bird species diversity is essential for maintaining ecological equilibrium, supporting ecosystem processes, and ensuring human well-being and sustenance. We selected a small area of the Western Ghats of India, where diversity has been continuously threatened by anthropogenic activities, such as newly expanded highways. Therefore, we need to study this particular aspect of biodiversity to compare the present scenario. The study was conducted from August 2023 to August 2024, during which bird occurrences were observed. A total of 63 avian species from 39 families were identified. Among them, all were Least Concern (LC), except the Malabar pied hornbill, which is a globally Near Threatened species according to the IUCN category. Forest Area (FA) had high species richness, followed by the Plateau Area (PA), Garden Area (GA), Hilly Area (HA), and Stream Area (SA), with respective values of 33, 24, 17, 15, and 14. The results of the Relative Diversity (RDi) index showed a range of 1.58 to 6.34, with Columbidae and Nectariniidae as the dominant families, each contributing 6.25% to the total abundance in the study area of 0.70 sq. km. The common biodiversity indices values ((H’) = 3.538, (D) = 0.03301, and (1-D) = 0.967) suggest a well-balanced and diverse avian community in the study region. The present study aimed to assess the diversity of the avian community, provide a checklist and their habitat associations.