Ganpat Dewaji Deshmukh and Rajendra Narayan Chavan
Abstract
We had undertaken monthly survey of water birds at Navkhala Pond (20ú58ââ¬â¢85"N and longitude 79 ú35ââ¬â¢24"E) the man-made water reservoir, situated near Nagbhid in eastern part of Vidarbha of Maharashtra State in India between Nov.2019 to Oct. 2022 in order to explore season fluctuations in its diversity and foraging guild. During study period in total 6919 individuals of 40 species, belongs to 29 genera, were recorded. The data on the mean abundance of water birds reveals that, Lesser Whistling Duck, (8.10%), Cattle Egret (11.18 %), and Little Cormorant (10.09%) were the most abundant species during winter, summer, and rainy season respectively. Observations on the conservation status of water birds reveals that, only three species, Wooly Necked Stork, Black Headed Ibis, Darter belongs to Near Threatened (NT) category while and River Tern belongs to Vulnerable (Vu) category of Red Data List of IUCN, while all other species belong to Least Concern (LC) category. Present investigation on the seasonal fluctuations of water bird community at Navkhala Pond indicates that, total count of water birds peaked during winter season (3244) followed by the summer (2110) and monsoon season (1565) that is, overall 48.24 % decline as the paradigm shift in the topographical features of pond undertakes from winter to monsoon season. Community composition across the different orders of water birds greatly fluctuates seasonally, order-Anseriformes recorded peak average number of birds during winter season followed by Gruiiformes and Suliiformes while during summer and monsoon season, waterbirds belongs to order - Suliiformes recorded peak values. Observations on seasonal fluctuations in the abundance of water birds reveals that, Order ââ¬â Charadiiformes recorded maximum abundance followed by Anseriformes during winter season. These gradients in abundance of water bird community slightly change during summer season, as order-Peliconiformes recorded maximum abundance followed by Charadiiformes. Surprisingly, the present study recorded phenomenal decline in number of ducks species belongs to fam-Anatidae of water bird community with exception of Gadwall and Northern Pintail, it may be due covering of open water habitat by the commercial cultivation of water chestnut hence the conservation measures were recommended for this very productive water body.