Guild, status, and diversity of avian fauna in the Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan, India

This is the first report on avian diversity in the Jhunjhunu district. The district possesses the Aravali range of hills that is covered with great vegetation. From February 2011 to January 2013, the occurrence of birds was observed. During the study period, 101 avian species belonging to 34 families were identified. Among them, 22 species were aquatic and 79 species were terrestrial. In addition, 37 species were winter visitors; four species, summer visitors; two species, passage migrants; and 58 species, resident species. Two globally critically-endangered species, one endangered species, and two near-threatened species were also recorded. Based on the guild, 41.58% of birds were insectivorous, followed by omnivorous (26.73%), carnivorous (15.84%), frugivorous (2.97%), granivorous (11.88%), and nectarivorous (0.99%). Results of the relative diversity (RD) index showed that Accipitridae (RD value = 10.89) was the dominant family in the district and the encounter rate of the species was 0.651.