New Forest campus in Dehradun, a recently declared Important Bird Area, lies in the north-central part of the Doon valley. Two hundred and seventy five species of birds have been recorded from the campus which spreads over an area of 463 hectares. The campus is a mosaic of habitats ranging from semi-natural forests to monoculture and mixed plantations of several indigenous and exotic species. Substantial parts of the campus are under these woodlands where the present study is being conducted. Based on the vegetation species composition and structure these woodlands have been divided into four distinct study habitats viz. semi-natural forests, garden & arboretum, Chir Pine plantations, and mixed plantations. 

The present study aims to quantify the spatio-temporal habitat use by birds in New Forest campus. Bird observations using point transects (n=30) and line transects (n=8) were conducted from October 2004 to June 2005. As the study habitats are small in extent averaging to approximately 40 hectares each, large number of pseudo-replicates were carried out. Vegetation parameters were quantified in two vegetation plots at each bird point transect location.  

Preliminary analysis of the point transect data indicated higher densities of birds in summer as compared to winter across all habitats. Bird species richness pooled across all the habitats was, however, marginally higher in winter, possibly because of arrival of altitudinal migrants. The semi-natural habitat recorded the highest densities of birds in both the seasons. The pooled data indicated that point transects recorded higher densities of birds when compared to line transects. The semi-natural habitat recorded the highest number of birds exclusive to a habitat (18 in summer and 12 in winter). The field study will be continued till end of June 2006.
 

Independent study for Ph. D. degree at FRI Deemed University