BREEDING RATE AND NESTING IN CATTLE EGRET (Bubulcus ibis) DURING THE YEAR 2022-23 ON A MAJOR HERONRY IN SOUTHERN PART OF PUNJAB, PROVINCE OF INDIA
Breeding season, Clutch size, Environmental influence, Nesting behavior, Colony nesting, Monogamous pairing, Parental care
The Cattle egret Bubulcus ibis is now a type of species that is distributed globally, still it is expanding in great range but as usual these are put in a least concerned category. The factors that are affecting breeding success of the species is not known exactly or least/badly known, and here with the help of research, investigating the breeding parameters of Bubulcus ibis in the southern part of Punjab, province of India, including places like Bathinda, Mansa, Ferozepur, Muktsar and Faridkot. And the factors that could be considered in keeping the scenarios that is happening now a days may be the excessive population of human being that is expanding day by day and the way human practices taking place to fulfil the resources of human being. Trees are being cut to make more house, industries, offices and in this process of cutting trees their habitats are being destroyed. In areas where the research has been conducted, the field work performed for two years (2022, 2023) in the month of nesting season which usually takes place from the end of March to the end of August. Observations made on the basis of survey is that Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are colonial breeders and on most of the trees they nested before at present time they stopped breeding on those trees due to construction of National highways and factories. The other observation made is that most of the time colonies were monospecific but sometimes other ardeidae also observed like Cormorants and Black headed ibis nesting in their neighbourhood. Mostly, they consider suitable sites for nesting, which have regular supply of water, food and such areas which are prone to human activities like farming, ploughing, continuous visits of farmers for the farming purpose. The breeding period for Bubulcus ibis usually observed to be start from April to August. Here, in this region where we prefer to research it has been observed that Acacia nilotica is most preffered tree for nesting in southern part of Punjab, even if other tree is there nearby like we observed Azadirachta indica but no nesting observed on that tree. Approximately 34km away from Bathinda this place named as Ruldu Wala Pathrala we found >150 trees with more than 35 nests on less as 2 nest on a single tree and almost >6000 nestings were observed. The sites that were marked during survey are regularly monitored to get a data on breeding (height of the nest from ground and diameter also has been taken in consideration), plumage variations that occurs along with process i.e., change in colour during different phases of breeding, wooing behaviour, measurement of eggs i.e., size of clutch, length, breadth and weight of eggs, process of incubating and hatching eggs. The hatching of the chicks was observed to be an allochronic one i.e., chicks did not hatch at the same time but at an interval of a day (19-24hr). Now here is a discussion regarding role of parents during estrange period i.e., when it comes to parenting and feeding nestling it was observed that parental care was performed by both partners. The bird Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) is considered as an insectivorous bird as its main food material is insects from agricultural fields during ploughing. Cattle egret also act as saviour as it saves life of cattle by eating ticks and flies from its body and plays a role of commensalism in which both the species benefits each other without any harm as cattle egret save cattle from disease causing insects by eating them and cattle while grazing walk in the field with the help of that insect flies and Bubulcus ibis obtains food from it.
"BREEDING RATE AND NESTING IN CATTLE EGRET (Bubulcus ibis) DURING THE YEAR 2022-23 ON A MAJOR HERONRY IN SOUTHERN PART OF PUNJAB, PROVINCE OF INDIA", IJSDR - International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (www.IJSDR.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.9, Issue 10, page no.564 - 573, October-2024, Available :https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2410064.pdf
Volume 9
Issue 10,
October-2024
Pages : 564 - 573
Paper Reg. ID: IJSDR_212641
Published Paper Id: IJSDR2410064
Downloads: 000347065
Research Area: Life Sciences
Country: Patna, Bihar, India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14192542
ISSN: 2455-2631 | IMPACT FACTOR: 9.15 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 9.15 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publisher: IJSDR(IJ Publication) Janvi Wave
