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A Study On The Activity Pattern Of The White-Headed Babbler, Turdoides Affinis (Jerdon,1845)

M. Sathiamoorthi, D. Paramanatha Swami Doss

Abstract


The jungle babbler are naturally important birds. A survey was conducted to investigate the activity pattern of Turdoides affinis (Jerdon, 1845) at St. John’s College campus, Tirunelveli for a period of 3 months (January to March, 2021). Jungle babblers are highly social birds, living in groups and known for their noisy and active behaviour. They are skilled forager, feeding on insects, fruits, and seeds. These birds are adaptable and can thrive in various habitats, including forests gardens and urban areas. Inter and intraspecific struggle for food was recorded at natural feed and artificial feeding sources like canteens. During the study period it was found that, the candidate species Turdoides affinis feed on live leaves, insects, rice and several cereals at ground level; whereas it had grasshopper and bees at aerial level. Turdoides affinis exerted higher number of single wing flapping and spreading; whereas babbler showed lesser of flapping and spreading by both the wings. The key characters selected for the study include such as foraging, grooming, preening and wing stretching from 6.30 am to 6.30 pm every day. The outcome of the present study showed a marked variation in behaviour pattern

Keywords


White headed babbler, foraging, grooming, preening, wing stretching

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References


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