Factors Affecting Provisioning Times of Two Stork Species in Lowland Nepal

Abstract

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Roosting Ecology of Black-Headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) in Urban and Rural Areas of Southern Rajasthan, India

“…Assessments should include the identification and maintenance of roosting sites as an important conservation strategy. While previous studies (Sundar andKittur 2012, 2013;Sundar et al 2015Sundar et al , 2016 have discovered the high value of agricultural landscapes in southern Asia to waterbirds, the discovery of crowded urban settings supporting high populations of waterbird species outside of the breeding season is novel. This bodes well for species conservation in the region, and provides an optimistic overtone to Black-headed Ibis status assessments.…”

“…Colonial waterbirds in southern Asia forage and breed in a variety of landscape and habitat conditions including natural wetlands, urban areas, and intensively cultivated rural landscapes (Sundar 2006;Koli et al 2013;Sundar et al 2016;Chaudhury and Koli 2018). Roosting behavior has been documented in several waterbirds species (Ali and Ripley 2007), but is very poorly understood for the near-threatened and colonial Black-headed Ibis (Threskionis melanocephalus; BirdLife International 2016).…”

Ciconiiformes Nesting on Trees in Cereal-Dominated Farmlands: Importance of Scattered Trees for Heronries in Lowland Nepal

“…We used existing road routes to survey the study area for waterbird colonies between September 2014 and January 2015 ( Fig. 1B), covering 680.27 km 2 at least once every two weeks (Koju 2015;Sundar et al 2016). Ciconiiformes nesting on trees (single nests and colonies) were located by sight and by questioning farmers.…”

“…At the time of the study, districts were sub-divided for governance into Village Development Committees (VDCs). More details are available elsewhere (Koju 2015;Sundar et al 2016Sundar et al , 2019.…”

“…Also, very few agricultural landscapes have been explored, and such studies are particularly important in south Asia where many landscapes have been converted to multi-season farming characterized by sparse remnant natural habitats, different agro-forestry practices, and high human densities (Sundar and Kittur 2012). Recent explorations in south Asia have shown that despite heavy landscape modification over long time periods to farming, and high human presence, several agricultural landscapes support considerable waterbird populations and heronries (Sundar and Kittur 2012;Sundar et al 2016Sundar et al , 2019Koli et al 2019). Studies to understand if waterbirds preferentially choose nest trees are however missing from south Asia (Pierlussi 2010;Sundar and Subramanya 2010).…”