Study on Avifaunal Diversity and Species Richness in Foot Hills of Nilgiris, Tamilnadu, India

A total of 87 bird species belonging to 13 orders and 31 families of terrestrial and semi-aquatic birds were identified and recorded during the study. The highest population of bird species recorded during the month of January followed by December. The maximum number of birds was observed of the corvidae family (11 species) followed by columbidae (6 species) and passeridae (6 species). The highest diversity of 4.19 was observed in the month of January followed by 4.17 in the month of February and 4.15 in the month of April. Species richness was highest in the month of January followed by February and least in April. This study illustrated useful information on bird diversity in the study region which serves as a baseline for future monitoring programs.