PhD Theses (SACON)
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Item Assemblage of Shorebirds in the Sindhudurg District Maharashtra(SACON, 2022) Babu Rao, Golusu; Babu, SMigratory shorebirds are the most threatened waterbird species around the world. Shorebirds in India have received little attention, particularly on the west coast. Thus, this study was conducted in the coastal areas of the Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra. The coastal habitats in the district are dominated by beaches, mudflats, and mangroves, which have been identified as potential habitats for shorebirds. Thus, the distribution, abundance, and factors influencing habitat use of shorebirds were studied from these three habitats across seven sites and five seasons. Among the three habitat types, mudflat was an important area for shorebirds thus fine-scale habitat selection for select shorebird species was carried out in the mudflats. Total count and photographic methods were used to count the birds. A total of 36 species of shorebirds were recorded, of which 21 and 10 species used Sindhudurg coast as stopover and wintering sites respectively. Mudflats had a higher species richness (21) than the beach (20) and mangroves (14) habitats. Plovers were the most common and abundant species in the study area. nMDs showed various pattern of shorebird species composition across the habitats and seasons. The cluster analysis revealed five distinct migratory seasons in shorebirds along the Sindhudurg coast: 1) arrival phase, 2) wintering phase, 3) early departure and late arrival phase, 4) departure phase, and e) breeding phase. The physiochemical parameters of water and prey varied significantly between habitats and seasons. Salinity showed decreasing trend from beach (34.67±5.94) towards the mangroves (28.07±7.66). Prey abundance was higher in mudflats and during the wintering season. BIO-ENV analysis showed that among the measured environmental parameters salinity was the key factor influenced prey distribution (ρ=0.51). The shorebird richness (X2=56.5, P=0.00) and abundance (X2=32.6, P=0.00) positively influenced by crustacean density, salinity and bivalve density. Prey availability and accessibility had a major impact on the finescale habitat selection of the studied species. The Lesser Sand Plover and Kentish Plover avoided areas with oyster beds and preferred fine sand substrates with higher crab densities. Eurasian Curlew selected high profitable foraging sites close to the waterline with increased surface penetrability