Species Composition And Analysis Of Foraging Guilds Of Birds From A Sub-urban Sprawl: A Contemporary Study In And Around West Bengal State University Campus, North 24 Parganas District, West Bengal, India

Natural avifaunal diversity is the nature’s reliable monitoring tool for checking ecosystem’s health and the Bengal plain is not an exception. Extensive survey with standard field ecology methods carried out during August 2018 to September, 2019 in and around the West Bengal State University (WBSU) campus revealed the presence of 65 bird species from 16 orders and 37 different families of terrestrial, aquatic and waders. Family-wise relative diversity index has been calculated and observed birds were divided into seven major categories of foraging guilds. Most bird species were found to be insectivorous (23) followed by other foraging guilds. This is perhaps the first effort in recent times to prepare a list of birds in and around the WBSU. Pertinently, only a single species of family Anhingidae was found with Near Threatened (NT) status of IUCN in the study area. The study area also has a diverse flora and water bodies, facing drastic change in becoming a sub-urban sprawl.