Birds of India

What is a bird?

• Birds are warm-blooded animals with backbones and feathers.
• They have beaks and lay hard-shelled eggs.
• Some birds fly far. Others fly little or cannot fly.
• A resident stays in an area all year.
• A migrant moves between areas each season.

India’s main bird habitats

The four birds in the UPSC question

• Ceylon frogmouth: a night-active bird of Western Ghats forests. It also occurs in Sri Lanka.
• Coppersmith barbet: a green fruit eater that nests in tree holes. Its call sounds like a metalworker tapping.
• Gray-chinned minivet: a forest bird that hunts insects in the canopy. In India it lives in the eastern Himalayas and Northeast.
• White-throated redstart: a Himalayan bird with a white throat and reddish tail.
• They belong to different families. They do not share one diet or habitat.

Food gives each bird a role

• Insect eaters remove insects from leaves or the air.
• Fruit eaters carry seeds away from the parent tree.
• Barbets and hornbills help some forest plants spread.
• Scavengers such as vultures eat dead animals.

Residents and migrants

• A Coppersmith barbet can stay in its Indian range all year.
• Many waterbirds visit India in winter from northern breeding areas.
• India lies on the Central Asian Flyway.
• Winter visitors need safe water and food here. A protected nesting site far away cannot replace a lost winter stop.
• Wadhvana Wetland in Gujarat hosts many wintering waterbirds. It is also used for irrigation.
• Sources: Ramsar note and Ministry annual report 2018–19.

How to identify a bird

1. Place: note the habitat and region.
2. Shape: size, beak, wings and tail.
3. Colour: clear patterns, not one bright patch.
4. Behaviour: feeding, movement, posture.
5. Sound: listen to the call.

Endemic is not the same as threatened

• An endemic species lives naturally in a limited region.
• A threatened species faces a high risk of extinction.
• One bird can be both, but the terms are not synonyms.
• The Ceylon frogmouth lives in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. It is not endemic to India alone.
• The Great Indian bustard is a grassland bird at grave risk. Power-line collisions and habitat change threaten it.

Why a frogmouth looks like an owl

• A resting frogmouth has mottled feathers and a broad head.
• Its colour and stillness hide it among branches.
• It catches insects at night.
• An owl-like face does not make it an owl.
• Modern checklists place frogmouths in Podargiformes, a separate order. Source: Indian Birds taxonomy update.

Threats and responses

• The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 protects listed birds.
• The Environment Ministry has a Central Asian Flyway action plan. See the Ministry wildlife division.
• The State of India’s Birds 2023 report uses birdwatchers’ records to flag species needing attention.
• Its results do not mean every bird follows one trend.