Exploring avian richness in some village areas of Assam, India

Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 13 ISRG PUBLISHERS Abbreviated Key Title: ISRG. J. Agri.Vet.Sci. ISSN: 3048-8869 (Online) Journal homepage: https://isrgpublishers.com/gjavs/ Volume – II IssueVI (November-December) 2025 Frequency: Bimonthly Exploring avian richness in some village areas of Assam, India Ashraful Kabir1*, Nakibur Rahman2, Khairul Syed3 1 Department of Biology, Cantonment Public College, Saidpur Cantonment―5311, Nilphamari, Bangladesh 2 Managing director, International Scientific Research Group & Publishers (ISRG), Karaiguri, District–Hojai, Assam 782440, India 3 Assistant Editor, International Scientific Research Group & Publishers (ISRG), Jamuna Gaon, District–Hojai, Assam 782440, India | Received: 20.11.2025 | Accepted: 29.11.2025 | Published: 04.12.2025 *Corresponding author: Ashraful Kabir Department of Biology, Cantonment Public College, Saidpur Cantonment―5311, Nilphamari, Bangladesh Abstract As the second largest state of India, Assam could be a better green place to observe avian population. At the time of surveying, direct observation, and interviews with local people helped to write this paper. The avian diversity in selected seven villages in Assam resulted the richness of birds with 42 species. The Simpson indices suggested high diversity of avian richness in forest, wetland, cropland, and old building with 0.882, 0.926, 0.914, and 0.806 values respectively. Based on the Berger-Parker indices, those birds showed high diversity too with 0.243, 0.144, and 0.174 values. Relative abundance or evenness of different species in the wetlands was found the highest (0.775) whereas the lowest on old buildings (0.557), so the result exhibited as B > C > A > D sites accordingly. Out of 42 species, passerine birds were 18 (43%) in number and non-passerine 24 (57%) species. Within all species, orders were 12, families 30, breeding birds 20 (48%), and resident birds were 38 (90%). Based on the availability of listed birds, these villages focused very common birds 10, common 11, uncommon 9, and rare 12. This study was carried out from October 2024 to October 2025. Keywords: Assam, birds, distribution, abundance, breeding, India Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 14 Introduction Assam is a state in northeastern India with cover an area of 78,438 km2. This is the second largest state in northeastern India in terms of population with more than 31 million. The state has 35 districts with 5 divisions (Fig 1). The Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism to ‘Kaziranga National Park’ and ‘Manas National Park’ which are world heritage sites. Sal tree forests are found in this state, as a result of abundant rainfall, look green all year round. Brahmaputra River of this state provides a distinctive hydrogeomorphic environment. Assam is a temperate zone (summer maximum at 95-100 °F and winter 43-46 °F) and experiences heavy rainfall and high humidity. It has tropical rainforest, deciduous forest, riverine grassland, bamboo forest, and wetland ecosystem (Fig 1). In Assam, many forests are now protected as national parks and reserved forests. This state has highest diversity of birds with the subspecies this number as high as 946 (Choudhury, 1990). Assam is one of the biodiversity-rich states of India and home to about 950 bird species including 17 endemic species (Choudhury, 2000) with 55 important birds and biodiversity areas. In ‘Panidihing Bird Sanctuary’ there were 165 species of birds (Mili and Acharjee, 2014); 284 in ‘Orang National Park’ (Chakdar et al., 2019), and 227 in ‘Raimona National Park’ (Mahanta et al., 2022). Recently, ‘Bornodi Wildlife Sanctuary’ recorded 227 (Chetry et al., 2024) and ‘Loharghat Forest’ 157 avian species (Talwar et al., 2024). In 1996, the Assam government designed Bordoibam-Bilmukh as a bird sanctuary due to its great biodiversity (BirdLife International, 2024). Wetlands provide excellent habitats for migratory birds for feeding, nesting, and rearing young ones (Anand et al., 2023). Human activities are the pressure on the avian population (Kumar and Kanaujia, 2014; Chen et al., 2011; Sekercioglu et al., 2012). Illegal collection of eggs, consumption of meat of many birds, and hunting are common in Assam (Saikia et al., 2024). Additionally, due to the development of agricultural areas, noise played a negative role on avian population (Saikia et al., 2024). Wetlands are affected for intensive farming in this area (Golzar et al., 2019). Need to take immediate action for conservation of birds (Saikia et al., 2024). The objective of this paper is to mention the present status of birds in some village areas of Assam for their conservation. Materials and Methods Studied villages in Assam: This study was done in Udmari (26.40426, 92.63147), Ambari (26.10163, 90.41028), Rowar Par (26.03576, 90.08706), Paschim Jamuna Gaon (26.12907, 92.93226), Gonipur (26.10508, 92.92588), and Doboka (26.11240, 92.86412) which were in Hojai District and only Kathiatali village (26.18405, 92.73560) under Nagaon District of Assam (26.2006° N, 92.9376° E) (Fig 1). Sal forests, wetlands, cropfields, and old buildings of the Assam of India played a significant role to forage of many birds. Its Brahmaputra River and bamboo forest were surveyed to note the avian population. Fig 1. Significant villages in Assam on the basis of birds’ population Collection of data: In order to collect data on birds, one day in a week, from 5:00 to 10 a.m, then 4:00 to 7:00 p. m. (total 8 hours) was spent. For nocturnal birds especially owls, a simple torch light was enough. Two android mobile phones (LAVA Z35; Moto g85) were perfect for taking occasional photographs and voice recording of those birds. A pair of high-quality binoculars (10x-70x × 70mm, Comet)) was helpful for this survey. A DSLR camera (Canon, EOS Rebel T3i) with 200-500mm lens is used for necessary snaps. ArcGIS pro and R software: In order to make a standard map of Assam (location, ruler, grid, images) ArcGIS pro (Fig 1) and for species richness (Table 3) R package helped to explain the avian diversity in these areas. Results and Discussion Out of 18 finches in Bangladesh, family ‘Estrildidae’ showed the highest species (6 species) (Kabir, 2024a). In Assam, only one species in this family was found as rare but resident, so this result is similar with the Bangladeshi data (Table 1). In Bangladesh, black-crowned night herons are doing remarkable breeding Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 15 performance due to implementing wildlife act (Kabir et al., 2019b). Black-crowned night heron is available in Assam, so this is similar type of finding to compare (Table 1). Trapping is regulated in most countries by trained research personnel to follow precautions can lead to injury or death of birds (Kabir, 2019). Trapping birds in Assam is merely common and to mitigate this incident administrative raid is a common phenomenon. Mecca-Medina is the safe place for rock-pigeons due to the strict protective legislation (Kabir, 2025). In Bangladesh, there are many rockpigeons both rural and urban areas (Kabir, 2016). Out of 42 avian population, rock-pigeons were found abundant in Assam (Appendix 1). Rice-mills are significant place for allowing birds (Kabir, 2019a), and in Assam there are many rice-mills which allowed many cereal wild birds. Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) could be an excellent research bird with the barbary dove (Streptopelia risoria) which is a significant pet dove in Bangladesh (Kabir, 2023). Eurasian collared dove is not common as spotted dove in Assam but its breeding was seen (Table 1). Rose-ringed parakeet is our native and wild bird, not allowed to keep in cage, and exotic parrots and parakeets could be an alternative to rear as pets (Kabir et al., 2020). The scenario of this rose-ringed parakeet is the same with Bangladesh. Both rural and urban areas of Bangladesh, Burmese/Malayan spotted dove (Streptopelia chinensis tigrina) is found huge and is very common (Kabir, 2024b). This is fully similar to the villages of Assam (Table 1). Due to different breeding seasons in different localities, the white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) could get advantage to protect naturally. Hunting by making traps (Kabir, 2019) and habitat loss is the most concern of this bird (Kabir, 2024c). Since, in Bangladesh, this white-breasted waterhen is available but in Assam this was found rare (Table 1). A report from 2022 to 2024 carried out 47 species of birds in Assam with 16 orders, 29 families, 15 passerine birds, 43 resident birds, one summer visitor, and brown shrike, citrine wagtail, and white wagtail were winter visitor (Saikia et al., 2024). This report with 42 species, 12 orders, 30 families, 38 resident birds, 1 summer visitor, 1 winter visitor, and 18 passerine birds is very similar with these findings (Fig 2) (Table 2). A report with 167 birds (Phukan et al., 1997), and out of 133 species with 41 families, 86 resident, 23 migratory, and 24 local migrants were noted (Dutta et al., 2011). Since, this report described in the year 2011, so at present due to small dataset, only 42 species did not show similar findings (Fig 3) (Appendix 1). Table 1. Observed bird species in some village areas of Assam Classification with names Family Local status Global status Cuculiformes (4 species, 2 families) *Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) Cuculidae Common; Resident LC Pied crested cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus) Cuculidae Rare; Summer visitor LC Common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx varius) Cuculidae Uncommon; Resident LC Greater coucal (Centropus sinensis) Centropodidae Rare; Resident LC Coraciiformes (4 species, 2 families) White-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) Alcedinidae Very common; Resident LC *Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) Alcedinidae Very common; Resident LC Storkbilled kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) Alcedinidae Rare; Resident LC Green bee-eater (Merops orientalis) Meropidae Uncommon; Resident LC Ciconiiformes (4 species, 2 families) *Indian pond heron (Ardeola grayii) Ardeidae Very common; Resident LC Little egret (Egretta garzetta) Ardeidae Common; Resident LC Black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) Ardeidae Uncommon; Resident LC Asian openbill stork (Anastomus oscitans) Ciconiidae Common; Resident LC Psittaciformes (1 species, 1 family) *Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri) Psittaculidae Very common; Resident LC Columbiformes (3 species, 1 family) *Blue rock-pigeon (Columba livia) Columbidae Very common; Resident LC *Spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis) Columbidae Very common; Resident LC *Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) Columbidae Uncommon; Resident LC Strigiformes (1 species, 1 family) *Spotted owlet (Athene brama) Strigidae Common; Resident LC Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 16 Passeriformes (18 species, 15 families) *Citrine wagtail (Motacilla citreola) Motacillidae Uncommon; Winter visitor LC *Purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) Nectariniidae Common; Resident LC *Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) Pycnonotidae Very common; Resident LC Red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jacosus) Pycnonotidae Rare; Resident LC *Common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) Cisticolidae Common; Resident LC *House sparrow (Passer domesticus) Passeridae Very common; Resident LC White-throated fantail flycatcher (Rhipidura albicollis) Rhipiduridae Rare; Resident LC *Common myna (Acridotheres tristis) Sturnidae Very common; Resident LC Jungle myna (Acridotheres fuscus) Sturnidae Uncommon; Resident LC *Blue-throated barbet (Megalaima asiatica) Megalaimidae Rare; Resident LC Asian palm swift (Cypsiurus balasiensis) Apodidae Common; Resident LC Long-tailed shrike (Lanius schach) Laniidae Uncommon; Resident LC Black-headed cuckoo-shrike (Coracina melanoptera) Campephagidae Common; Summer visitor LC Eastern jungle crow (Corvus levaillantii) Corvidae Rare; Resident LC Rufous treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) Corvidae Rare; Resident LC *Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) Dicruridae Very common; Resident LC *Oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) Muscicapidae Common; Resident LC Indian silverbill (Euodice malabarica) Estrildidae Rare; Resident LC Piciformes (2 species, 1 family) *Black-rumped flameback woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense) Picidae Common; Resident LC Streak-throated woodpecker (Picus xanthopygaeus) Picidae Uncommon; Resident LC Anseriformes (1 species, 1 family) *Lesser whistling duck (Dendrocygna javanica) Anatidae Common; Resident LC Falconiformes (1 species, 1 family) Black-shouldered kite (Elanus caeruleus) Accipitridae Rare; Resident LC Gruiformes (1 species, 1 family) *White-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) Rallidae Rare; Resident LC Charadriiformes (2 species, 2 families) Common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) Scolopacidae Uncommon; Winter visitor LC Greater painted snipe (Rostratula benghalensis) Rostratulidae Rare; Resident LC *Breeding birds; LC = least concern Table 2. Present status of birds in Assam Order (12) Species (42) Family (30) Breeding species (20) Cuculiformes 4 2 1 Coraciiformes 4 2 1 Ciconiiformes 4 2 1 Psittaciformes 1 1 1 Columbiformes 3 1 3 Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 17 Strigiformes 1 1 1 Passeriformes 18 15 9 Piciformes 2 1 1 Anseriformes 1 1 1 Falconiformes 1 1 0 Gruiformes 1 1 1 Charadriiformes 2 2 0 Fig 2. Group of birds Fig 3. Local status of birds Table 3. Avian indices in four selected sites Sites Simpson Berger-Parker Evenness Site-A (Forest) 0.882 (high) 0.243 (high) - Site-B (Wetland) 0.926 (high) 0.144 (high) 0.775 Site-C (Cropland) 0.914 (high) 0.174 (high) - Site-D (Old building) 0.806 (high) - - Conclusions In Assam, some hunters capture or kill birds by using poison in field. Sometimes, meat of wild birds as well as fowl are sold in restaurants. In this area, parakeets are caught from the jungle and sold through online platforms. Forest officials raid in the weekly rural markets and release such wild birds for the conservation of biodiversity. To protect wildlife as well as birds, need to implement more research projects for motivating local people. References 1. Anand, J., Byju, H., Nefla, A., Abhijith, S., Reshi, O. R., Aarif, K. M. 2023. Conservation significance of Changaram wetlands―a key wintering site for migratory shorebirds and other waterbirds in the western coast of Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(1): 2241022418. 2. BirdLife International. 2024. Import bird area factsheet: Bordoibam-Bilmush Bird Sanctuary. https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/bordoibambilmukh-bird-sanctuary-iba-india. Accessed on 25 November 2025. 3. Chakdar, B., Singha, H., Choudhury, M. R. 2019. Bird community of Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, Assam. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity 12: 498-507. 4. Chen, I. C., Hill, J. K., Ohlemuller, R., Roy, D. B., Thomas, C. D. 2011. 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Dataset for the R studio Species Site_A Site_B Site_C Site_D Species1 47 1 1 1 Species2 2 1 1 1 Species3 12 1 1 1 Species4 1 1 5 1 Species5 1 37 1 1 Species6 1 47 1 1 Species7 1 1 1 1 Species8 3 1 1 1 Species9 1 6 1 1 Species10 14 1 14 1 Species11 1 18 20 1 Species12 1 27 1 1 Species13 1 47 1 1 Species14 1 9 1 1 Species15 37 1 30 2 Species16 1 1 1 1 Species17 22 3 23 2 Species18 2 5 43 50 Species19 3 31 34 2 Species20 25 20 31 124 Species21 200 30 70 200 Species22 8 1 6 1 Species23 12 4 8 6 Species24 1 1 1 1 Species25 150 70 98 82 Species26 72 2 3 3 Species27 4 1 1 1 Species28 5 1 1 1 Species29 57 1 1 1 Species30 1 5 1 1 Copyright © ISRG Publishers. All rights Reserved. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17800071 19 Species31 2 35 22 1 Species32 4 1 1 1 Species33 2 8 1 1 Species34 1 1 1 1 Species35 7 1 1 1 Species36 29 1 9 1 Species37 4 1 1 1 Species38 5 1 1 1 Species39 22 15 21 22 Species40 47 41 68 44 Species41 3 2 2 2 Species42 11 5 32 22