ISSN: 2639-216X
Authors: Veeramani A* and Hemalatha K
Birds inhabiting wetlands for feeding, breeding, nesting or roosting are broadly defined as water birds. They are one of the essential components of food web and nutrient cycles of the wetland ecosystems. Distribution of waterbirds in a particular wetland mainly depends on availability of food, nesting sites and predation risk. Study on behavior of birds is also believed to be its expressions in response to the internal stimuli mainly related to the physiological needs. Physical displays or posture is one of the several means of animal communications and birds effectively use visual signals. The Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus is a sexually monomorphic waterbird of the rail family, which exploits a wide spectrum of habitats ranging from rivers and canals to lakes and ponds. This study was carried out in the Cauvery Delta region of Tamil Nadu. Observations on activity of Common moorhen were carried out using focal and scan sampling methods. There were two peaks of feeding in the morning hours; one between 08.00 and 09.00 (80.7%) and another between 09.00 and 10.00 (72.4%). The feeding activity was low in the noon hours and the least was observed between 12.00 and 13.00 (32.8%). Thereafter the feeding gradually increased till 17.00 to 18.00 when the feeding rate reached at its peak (76.8%) in the evening. The overall activities of Common Moorhen shows that the bird spend most of the time 48.96% on Feeding activities followed by 24.54% on Movement, 13.45% on maintenance activities, 5.9% on postures and display, 4.28% on Agonistic and 2.87% on call activities. Overall time spent for different activities by the common Moorhen shows majority of the time they spent feeding activities. In the morning hours they engage movement activities whereas in the noon hours they spend agonistic and maintenance activities.
Keywords: Activity pattern; Time budget; Moorhen; Water Bird; Cauvery Delta
