J. Agric. Environ. Sci. Vol. 7 No. 2 (2022) ISSN: 2616-3721 (Online); 2616-3713 (Print)

Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 59

Diurnal activity patterns of five distinct bird species in agricultural landscapes of

Central Rajasthan during their non-breeding period in India

Rounak Choudhary

*, Vivek Sharma

, Praveen Mathur

Department of Environmental Science, Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India

*Corresponding author: rounakchoudhary17@gmail.com

Received: September 25, 2022 Accepted: December 12, 2022

Abstract: The daily time activity budget explains how any species distribute their daily time for regular

activities. The most typical behaviors observed in birds include foraging, feeding, roosting, flying, singing,

building a nest, incubating eggs, and raising young. The temporal budgets of five bird species from three

distinct feeding guilds were examined. The research area in central Rajasthan, India an ecotone of Arid and

Semi-arid zones. Five bird species were examined for their behavior during the research period, with each bird

being observed at least 40 (N=200) times during their non-breeding phase. The study includes the Red Collard

Dove, White Eared Bulbul, Black Winged Kit, Long Tailed Shrike, and Yellow Throated Sparrow. The

examination was carried out using the Scan sampling method. The data was aggregated using the un-weighted

pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA), and the Bray-Curtis method was used to evaluate species

similarities based on time allocation in the same environment. The rates of transition between behaviors were

investigated in order to understand which activity the animal does following a certain activity. Likelihood

values vary from 0 to 1 were used where 0 indicated that the bird is unlikely to undertake the activity after

completing any specific activity and 1 indicated that the bird has the highest probability to perform the activity

after finishing any specific activity. In the behavioral research, the Yellow-throated Sparrow, Red Collard Dove,

and White Eared Bulbul had the highest similarity because they devote about comparable time to similar

behaviors. The results showed that the Long-Tailed Shrike and the Black-Winged Kite have very similar habits

and time allocation for different tasks. When flying, the Black Winged Kite has a 0.900 chance of entering

screening, and the lowest observed likelihood of flying following other behaviors such as preening is 0.100.

Long-tailed Shrikes were more likely to switch from roosting to other behaviors like calling and preening, and

from other activities to screening the area for food. The White-Eared Bulbul eats on insects and grains, while

Red Collared Doves fly more after scanning. The Long-tailed Shrike and the Black-Winged Kite spend more

time examining agricultural fields. The Red Collard Dove is among the potential pests for farmers in the study

area. Long-tailed Shrike needs time to hunt, kill, and consume prey that is nearly half their body size.

Keywords: Agro-Ecosystems, Behavior, Birds, Nagaur, Parbatsar, Time budget

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

1. Introduction

The diurnal time activity budget is a quantitative

description of how any species allocate its daily

time for routine tasks (Baldassarre & Bolen, 1994).

The allocation of time to various activities differs

between species and habitats. Foraging, feeding,

roosting, walking, flying, singing, constructing a

nest, incubating eggs, and rearing young are the

most common behaviors observed in birds.

Understanding the behavior of any species in their

habitat and how the biotic and abiotic environment

affects their daily activities is aided by time

budgeting (Paulus, 1988). Observing and

comprehending the daily behaviors of bird aid in

establishing their life cycle, ecological adaption,

and similarities with other species (Hamilton et al.

2002). The evaluation of the time spent and

employed by birds in their habitat aids in

understanding the niche of birds and, as a result,

aids in habitat conservation (Hepworth &

Hamiltion, 2001).

The feeding guild has a direct impact on bird

behavior (Prajapati and Prajapati 2013). We

assessed the temporal budgets of five bird species

from three different feeding guilds, namely

carnivorous, granivorous, and frugivorous, as well

as a few that are occasionally insectivorous, that

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live in the agricultural fields of central Rajasthan.

Some birds, such as Lanius schach and Elanus

caeruleus, maintain their feeding zone for

undisturbed feeding (Schemske, 1975).

The use of time to conduct any activity is

determined by the individual's age and gender, the

season and time of day (Martinez, 2000), the kind

of habitat, and habitat usage (Eberhardt et al; 1989,

Caraco, 1979). The purpose of this study is to

investigate how birds from various feeding guilds

divide their available time between behaviors.

Especially during their non-breeding period, when

the birds focus on themselves rather than being

involved in different breeding tasks such as

displays, collecting nest materials and creating

nests, caring for eggs and nestlings, and others.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Description of the study area

The research was carried out in the agricultural

areas of Parbatsar (26°52'36.0"N 74°44'56.7"E),

Nagaur district, central Rajasthan, India (Figure 1).

The study region receives around 33 mm of

precipitation per year and has an average yearly

temperature of 30 ºC. The area is dominated by

agricultural fields and exhibits Arid and Semi-arid

biogeographic zone characteristics. It is mostly

composed of Dry mixed deciduous thorn woodland

with some bushy plants and trees like Anogeissus

pendula, Capparis deciduas, Acacia nilotica,

Acacia senegal, Salvadora persica, and other

species dominate the study area's plains. During the

monsoon season, the land is cultivated. Some of the

most significant seasonal crops are pearl millet,

cluster bean, sesame, green gramme, moth bean,

groundnut, wheat, cumin, cotton, and mustard.

2.2. Bird species studied

Throughout the year, the central Rajasthan region

is home to more than 191 bird species (Choudhary

et.al; 2020). The following five species were

chosen (Table 1 & Figure 2) since they maintain

their territory in the study area throughout the year

and the study area is also their breeding ground,

making it easy to study them and have a decent

population here, and they all belong to

four different feeding guilds, allowing us to collect

a diverse dataset.

Figure 1: Map of study area

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Table 1: Description of studied bird species

Common Name

Black-winged

Kite

Long-tailed

Shrike

Red-collared

Dove

White-eared

Bulbul

Yellow-throated

Sparrow

Scientific name

Elanus

caeruleus

Lanius

schach

Streptopelia

tranquebarica

Pycnonotus

leucotis

Gymnoris

xanthocollis

Breeding period

August to

January

February to

July

Throughout the

Year

February to May

April to June

Food

Insects and

Small

Mammals

Insects,

Lizards and

Small

Mammals

Grains and

Seeds

Fruits and

Insects

Grains and Insects

Major feeding

guild

Carnivorous

Grainivorous

Fruigivorous

Insectivorous

Figure 2: Photographs of studied birds from agriculture fields (left to right: Black-winged Kite (BWK); Long-tailed

Shrike (LTS); Red-collared Dove (RCD); White-eared Bulbul (YEB); Yellow-throated Sparrow (YTS)

2.3. Bird Survey and Behavioral Data collection

The research was carried out from September 2020

to August 2022, particularly during the non-

breeding season of the selected birds. During the

study period, five bird species were observed for

their behavior, with each bird being observed at

least 40 (N=200) times during their non-breeding

period. At every observation, the birds were

observed for at least 6 hours(7:00 am – 10:am in

the morning and 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the

evening) . Black Winged Kit (Elanus caeruleus)

was observed during February2021 to July2022,

Long Tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) was observed

from August2021 to January2022, White Eared

Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucoti) and Yellow Throated

Sparrow (Gymnoris xanthocollis) were observed

from July 2021 to January 2022 and August 2020

to March 2022 respectively, and Red Collard Dove

(Streptopelia tranquebarica) was observed

throughout the year when there was no nesting

involved as the bird breeds throughout year in the

study area.

The scan sampling method (Altmann, 1974) was

employed to conduct the research. For each

observation, a single observation point was chosen

and the nearest individual was taken as the

observation unit. A single individual was perhaps

observed throughout the day, and if the individual

went out of sight, the nearby individual was

observed. The birds were spotted using an

Olympus Binocular 10*50 X and a Nikon P1000

camera and a stopwatch and the mean± SD of

observations are presented in the result.

The analysis was done using PAST software

(Hammer et al., 2001), the un-weighted pair group

method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) was used

to aggregate data, and the Bray-Curtis method was

employed to calculate species similarities based on

time allocation in the same habitat. The rates of

transition between behaviors were examined in

order to determine which activity the animal does

after a certain activity. A plot matrix was used to

visualize the most favored behaviors of species in

agricultural landscapes in form of a heatmap. The

frequency of transition between behaviors was

calculated by dividing the total number of switches

between two particular behaviors (scanning to

feeding, feeding to flying, flying to roosting, etc.)

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by the total number of switches between behavior

during the total observed time period that indicates

how likely a bird species is to do a behavior after

performing another. The values of probability

range from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating no probability

and the bird is unlikely to perform the activity after

performing any particular activity and 1 suggesting

that the bird has the highest probability to perform

the activity after completing any particular activity.

The visualization of data was done using R

software and its circle package (Gu et. al. 2014) for

making chord diagrams.

During observations, the following activities were

taken into account:

Scanning: Perched on trees or at high elevations,

and structures in agricultural fields actively scan

their surroundings.

Feeding: Entails capturing prey, breaking it apart,

and ingesting it in the case of carnivorous animals.

Capturing and ingesting insects in the case of

insectivorous animals, and consuming fruits and

grains in the case of insectivorous and granivorous

animals.

Flying: Being in the air, usually in pursuit of prey

or going from one location to another.

Roosting: Sleeping perched in shrubs or trees, head

retracted and eyes closed.

Other activities: Preening, wing flapping, bill

cleaning, bill scratching, and body shaking, calls

and songs.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Daily time expenditure

In this study, scanning was observed as the most

important daytime activity in Black Winged Kite

(56.25 ± 2.4%) and Long Tailed Shrike (48.21±3

%), and both species belonged to the same feeding

guild, i.e., Carnivorous. The scanning period

includes the black kite hovering over the prey. The

Black-Winged Kite spent 21.87±1.7% of its time

flying through agricultural areas and 14.6±3.6%

roosting. Feeding accounted for only 4.7±2.5% of

the Black-winged Kite's total time, with the species

devoting only 2.58±2.3% of its time to other

activities. Scanning and feeding are the two most

time-consuming behaviors of the Long Tailed

Shrike, accounting for 48.21±3%, and 20.38±2.1%

of the time, respectively. Roosting takes up

12.3±1.6% of total time, whereas flying and other

activities take up nearly the same amount of time

(9.85±2.1% and 9.26±2.2%, respectively). In the

case of the Red Collared Dove, the majority of time

is spent flying and roosting (24.73±2.9% and

24.23±3.8%, respectively), followed by feeding

(17.53±2.5%), scanning (16.72±3.2%), and all

other activities (16.79±2.9%). The Red Collard

Dove is one of the possible pests for the farmers in

the research region because they feed in big groups,

although they spend most of their time roosting and

flying. The White Eared Bulbul spends most of its

time roosting (30.43±2.7%) and flying

(25.62±2.9%), scanning and feeding take up

25±2.5% of the overall time and another

18.35±3.8% of the time is spent on other pursuits.

Yellow-Throated Sparrows spend more than half of

their time hidden in bushes, with roosting

accounting for 56.17±2.7% of total time, followed

by flying (22.8±2.2%), making it a difficult species

to spot in central Rajasthan's agricultural areas.

Scanning and feeding take up only 3.95±1.5% and

2±1.2% of Yellow-throated Sparrows' total time,

respectively. An ethnography study comparing the

time allocation to different activities by different

birds (Figure 3) and a heatmap of species and their

most favored behavioral activity in agricultural

areas (Figure 4) are presented below.

Our findings indicate that all birds spend a

significant portion of their daytime engaged in four

key activities, which are scanning, feeding, flying,

and roosting. This is due to probably due to the

abundance of types and food sources throughout

the year. Because of the larger body mass of the

Black Winged Kite, it is easier for them to kill and

eat prey such as Hare, Mouse, Squirrels, and

Lizards (Amat 1979, Tarboton 1978), whereas the

Long-Tailed Shrike takes preferentially longer time

for attacking, capturing, and eating the prey due to

its small body mass.

Roosting is a key activity in birds, particularly in

insectivorous and granivorous birds, as a technique

to reduce the heat burden on a bird under high

environmental temperatures (Verbeek 1972, Lee

1997, Martinez 2000). Tamisier and Dehorter

(1999) suggest that scanning and feeding, usually

referred to as foraging and roosting, allow birds to

conserve as much energy as they need throughout

both breeding and non-breeding phases, same was

observed in this study as collectively all 3

behaviors account for more than 50% in time

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allocation of selected birds and the study area is

represented as a suitable foraging and roosting

habitat for these birds.

Flying symbolizes an escape, evasion, or change of

location in order to avoid being predated by

predators (Bensizerara 2014) and flying is one of

the most energy-intensive bird activities (Casey,

1992). In this study, on average the birds allot a

quarter of their total time for flying ranging from

9% to 25%, and mostly because of moving from

one area to another, as the predator and disturbance

pressure is very low in the study area, the major

disturbances are caused by human activities.

Figure 3: Ethograph of observed bird activities

Figure 4: Plot Matrix showing species and their highly preferred activities, x-axis denoting the activities and y-axis

denoting the species, the legend represents the percentage of time given to the activities ranging from 2%-56.3% of

total time

Black winged kite Long tailed shrike Red collard dove White eared

bulbul

Yellow Throated

Sparrow

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Scanning Feeding Flying Roost ing Other

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Figure 5 shows that Yellow-throated sparrow, Red

Collard Dove, and White Eared Bulbul are much

more similar on the basis of time allotted for

roosting, Moreover, Red Collard Dove and White

Eared Bulbul exhibit the highest similarity in the

behavioral study as they allot almost equal time to

similar activities. The Long-Tailed Shrike and the

Black-Winged Kite also exhibit great similarities in

their behaviors and similar time allocation to

different activities as they belong same feeding

guild, and they roost and scan in the same areas as

well.

According to the results, it is deduced that the birds

of central Rajasthan do not require more time,

which is associated with accessibility of food in the

fields. The body size has little bearing on feeding

time, but in the instance of the Long-Tailed Shrike,

which feeds on food that is roughly half its body

size, they need time to capture, kill, and devour the

prey. Because of the hot arid conditions of the day,

roosting generally occupies a larger share of the

time of selected birds to limit the waste of water

and energy. Flying across the fields takes around a

quarter of the time for the observed species, but in

the case of the Long-Tailed Shrike, the time is only

about 10% since they maintain tiny territories for

feeding, roosting, and other activities.

Figure 5: Similarities between species by Bray-Curtis Method

3.2. Frequencies of transition between observed

behaviors

The results of frequencies of transitions between

behaviors are shown as chord diagram in Figure 6

to Figure 10. The nodes at edge of circle represent

particular behaviors and the bands represent

transitions between the behaviors. The more the

width of a band, the more is the probability of

performing a particular behavior after another. The

Black Winged Kite (Figure 6) has a probability of

0.900 of entering screening when flying. And the

lowest measured chance of flying after other

actions such as preening is 0.100. The frequency of

eating after screening is only 0.450, and the bird

usually returns to scanning after feeding at 0.850

since the prey is rather little in comparison to its

body size, and the bird needs to finish its energy

requirements. Long-tailed Shrike (Figure 7) had a

higher likelihood of transitioning from roosting to

other behaviours such as calling and preening, and

from other activities to screening the habitat for

food, with values of 0.800 for both. After scanning,

the chance of feeding is 0.700. When compared to

Black Winged Kite and Long Tailed Shrike, Red

Collared Doves (Figure 8) have a higher likelihood

of feeding after scanning, which is 0.900, because

their dietary items are often static. The likelihood

of flight after feeding is 0.950 in Red Collared

Doves because they roost for a longer amount of

time. The White-eared Bulbul (Figure 9), which

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feeds on fruits and barriers, has a higher likelihood

of feeding after scanning, which is 0.950, as does

the Yellow-Throated Sparrow (Figure 10), which

feeds on insects and grains. With an observed value

of 0.800, the White Eared Bulbul favors calling

after roosting; the bird rarely returns to scanning

after feeding. However, in the instance of the

Yellow-throated Sparrow, the bird has a 0.100

chance of returning after feasting on insects.

Figure 6: Transition between behaviors in Black Winged Kite

Figure 7: Transition between behaviors in Long Tailed Shrike

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Figure 8: Transition between behaviors in Red Collard Dove

Figure 9: Transition between behaviors in White Eared Bulbul

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Figure 10: Transition between behaviors in Yellow Throated Sparrow

4. Conclusion

According to the findings of this study, the two

carnivorous birds, the Black Winged Kite and the

Long-tailed Shrike, spend more time scanning in

agricultural fields because the fields provide a

suitable refuge for the prey population. The Black

Winged Kite, as a raptorial bird, has longer flights

between landscapes, whereas the Long-Tailed

Shrike has comparatively shorter flights. Based on

observations, these birds are particularly prone to

disturbances, causing them to displace frequently.

The White Eared Bulbul spends most of its time

roosting in agricultural fields; feeding often occurs

between early morning and late afternoon, and it

shares the least amount of time for feeding.

Yellow-throated Sparrows hide in bushes or thorny

trees since they have the smallest body size

compared to all other observed species. Their

dietary items are mostly insects and grains, and

thus they spend the least amount of time feeding.

Because there are fewer predators and less human

disturbance in the study region, the Red collard

dove spends more than half of its time being a

constant threat to crops.

Conflict of Interest

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of

interest in publishing the manuscript in this journal.

Acknowledgment

We would likely to acknowledge the Rajasthan

State Biodiversity Board (RSBB), the Department

of Science and Technology (DST) and Government

of Rajasthan for funding and their collaborative

efforts under the RSBB-DST Scholarship.

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