Factors affecting nest site selection of Milvus migrans govinda (Pariah kite), in and around AMU campus, Aligarh

Abstract

Small Indian Kite Milvus migrans govinda is a widely distributed resident kite of the Indian subcontinent with reasonably good population and presently serving as one of the major facultative scavengers in most of the urban centers, holding importance as after the Indian sub–continent has almost lost its primary scavenger, white backed vultures, since the 1990’s from most of its distribution range. A better management can help maintain its good population and one such crucial component, possibly understanding its Nesting site selection within the urban area, was the focus of our study. We investigated the various parameters like substrate type, substrate height, Nest height, GBH, Canopy cover above the nest, Green cover and distance from foraging site of all the active nest (n=70) found. The Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient was found highly positively significant with tree height, GBH and foraging site distance favoring the nesting site selection. Highly negative significant correlation with canopy cover and the green cover was found indicating its selectiveness towards more urban areas where green cover reduces. Also less canopy cover on the nest tree for easy entry–exit to the nest due to the large wingspan and for better vigilance. Also, the circular plots were plotted around the nest sites and random sites to compare the parameters between the utilized and available sites. The mean differences in the parameters came out to be significantly different, suggesting that the pariah kites are selective in nature for nest site selection.