birding...

Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis ©Laurence Poh http://www.laurencepoh.com/

Geography
Maharashtra is one of the most industrialised states of the Indian union. It is located in the upper western Indian Peninsula. It was founded on 1st May 1960 as a result of the reorganisation of Indian states. In population as well as size, it is the third largest state of the Indian union. With about 90 million people the state covers around 0.3 million sq. km. The east west length is about 800km (72°6` to 80°9`E) and north to south the length is about 700km.

There are 5 Major divisions of Maharashtra
Konkan (Coastal Maharashtra) This is a narrow coastal belt covering about 720km from north to south and about 50km wide. The strip is sandwiched between the Arabian Sea in the west and the Sayhandri or Western Ghats range to the east. The area received 2,000 to 3,000mm of rainfall. Its six districts are Thane, Mumbai (Bombay) city, Mumbai Suburb, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg.

Desh The rain-shadow belt adjoining the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats is called Desh. It is the western upland Maharashtra with an average height of 500m to 600m, interspaced with river valleys and low hill ranges forming eastern offshoots of the main Ghat range. The plateau gradually slopes east/south-eastward. The Desh includes districts of Dhule, Nandurbar and Jalgaon to the north through Nashik, Ahamadnagar, Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli to Kolhapur to the south. Because of rain-shadow effect, the rainfall is lower and averages between 500 to 1,000mm.

Western Ghats or Sahyandri This is actually the western edge of Deccan plateau, ending abruptly with an escarpment down to the Konkan lowland. The average height of the range is around 900m with some peaks and high altitude plateaus reaching 1400m. The Ghat country receives 4,000 to 6,000mm of rainfall.

Marathwada The hot and dry region of central Maharashtra is made up of 8 districts of Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Nanded, Parbhani and Hingoli. The average rainfall throughout the region is 500mm per anum.

Vidarbha This is the easternmost division of the state comparising eleven districts - Buldana, Akola, Washim, Yeotmal, Amaravati, Vardha, Nagpur, Chandarpur, Bhandara, Gadchiroli and Gondia. This is the division with maximum area under forest. The rainfall increases in this region with average ranging between 1000mm to 1500mm.

The Avifauna of Maharashtra
The state is very rich with more than 500 species recorded from the state so far. If the subspecies are to be considered then the list goes beyond 540. Mr. Prakash Gole has classified these 540 forms as follows:
Resident species 255
Local or International migrants 245
Stragglers or irregular visitors 40
Species known to be probably breeding 168
Species that breed in specific areas only 56
Species about whom very little is known 87
Species about which knowledge is fairly good (e.g. Sparrows, Crows etc.) 25

Most of the Vagrants and Stragglers are marine species that are storm driven to the coast during the monsoon months. Most of the migrants are winter visitors aquatic birds like ducks, geese, gulls, terns, cranes, flamingos, sandpipers etc. A number of harriers, cuckoos, swallows, warblers, chats, pipits and wagtails also arrive here in the cold season. Few species like Rain Quail, Pied-crested Cuckoo and Indian Pitta visit us at the beginning of the rainy season. Most of our bulbuls, babblers, sunbirds, munias, larks, woodpeckers, barbets, hornbills and owls are resident birds. Some birds are rare in the state for they were sighted only a few times (Ashy Minivet, Imperial Eagle, Scaup Duck, Pelican sp. etc.) The birds that were thought to be extinct were Forest Spotted Owlet (Athene blewitti) Jerdon`s Courser (Cursorius bitorquatus) and Pinkheaded Duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea). Jerdonn`s Courser was rediscovered in the adjoining Andhra Pradesh in 1986. The Forest Spotted Owlet was re-discovered in the Satpuda forests in 1999.

The commonest bird in the state is the ubiquitous Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos) which is found in remotest forest patches in Gadchiroli district to the heart of the Mumbai city. The other commoner and abundant birds are the House Crow, House Sparrow, Blue Rock Pigeon, Common Myna, Common Kite Red Vented and Red Whiskered Bulbuls. Common Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera) is the State Bird of Maharashtra. The Great Indian Bustard (Choriotis nigriceps); once so common on the drier Deccan tableland was reduced to extinction but was later recovered a bit , thanks to the conservation efforts of the state government and some NGO`s. Grey jungle fowl (Gallus sonneratii) a forest bird is fast loosing its ground, but common peafowl (Para cristatus) is a more fortunate bird for protection it has received in some parts, thanks to the religious sentiments.

Birding Areas
The main birding habitats in the state can be broadly classified into forests, scrub & grass country, fresh water bodies, seashore, cultivated country and urban areas. About 22% of the total state area is under forest though true forest cover is hardly half of this area. Tropical Deciduous forest is the dominant vegetation type in the state. It is found all over the state in all divisions. Small pockets in the Western Ghats supports Evergreen and Semi Evergreen type. E.g. Bhimashankar, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar, Chandoli etc. Tropical thorn forest is the dominant type throughout the plateau area. Great Indian Bustard sanctuary is located within this belt.

Narrow mangrove patches bank many creeks in the coastal belt. Maharashatra is the state with maximum number of reservoirs I the country. The twin districts of Bhandara and Gondia alone have about 13000 tanks. The Western Ghats are full of large and medium dams. In Konkan every village has a pond. All these bodies of water are full of migratory birds in the winter months. Nandur-Madhemeshwar (Nashik); Jaikwadi (Aurangabad); Ujani (Pune-Solapur); Mayani (Satara); Nawegaon (Bhandara) are some of the popular birding spots for wetland birds. Cultivated country has its own unique bird fauna which is mostly gramivorous and insectivorous. In spite of being most urbanized state, cities in Maharashtra support high bird diversity. Pune city bird checklist has more than 300 bird species. Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad also support equally high bird diversity. Along the coast sandy beaches are full of waders in the winter months. Bordi, Kelwe-mahim (Thane); Kihim (Raigad); Guhagar, Velneshwar (Ratnagiri); Malvan-Tarkarli (Sindhudurga) are some good shore birding spots.