![]() Seven species of fruit pigeon were studied during 3 years in the lowland tropical forest of N. An attempt was made to understand breeding parameters such as the nesting feature, clutch size, nest height and incubation period of purple sunbird. It feeds on honey, insects and mistletoes (10). This bird species is very common and resident species in Haridwar district (28° 35¢ N 77° 12¢ E) of Uttarakhand. The purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) belongs to Nectarinidae family and widely distributed from Afghanistan through India to South Asia. To know the breeding behavior of bird species in urban habitat, purple sunbird was selected. nesting, eggs lying, incubation and hatching. Breeding is an important phenomenon in avian species and this process complete with different phases i.e. Human interference and presence of non-native predation species affect on the nest placement and bird breeding behavior (6-9). The studies have documented the effects of urbanization on bird community and their breeding success (1-5). INTRODUCTION Avian species are responsible to maintain the natural ecosystem. Lantena shrubs are used for nest construction in the urban habitat and it feeds on honey, insects and mistletoes. ![]() Results indicates, average length of nest was about 13.5 ± 1.07 cms, the average clutch size nest was 2.4 ± 0.55 and sunbird take was 15.2 ± 0.84 days to incubation the eggs. A study was conducted from 16 th March to 26 th June 2018 to understand the breeding parameters (pairing, nesting, egg laying, incubation, and hatching). The purple sunbird is widely distributed species in the world and resident species in Haridwar district (28° 35´ N, 77° 12´ E) of Uttarakhand. The Oriental Garden Lizard, Calotes versicolor was noticed as a nest predator. One of the nests was used in two consecutive breeding seasons and 04 broods were successfully raised in the same nest. ![]() The review of video-records showed that the female Purple Sunbird made use of nest fibers from the inner lining of the nest, as a tool for removing the defective egg from the nest. During this OT, the male and female PSB were seen carrying faecal sacs of chicks away from nest on 03 and 79 occasions respectively. During the biparental food provisioning OT of 54 hours referable to 05 days of the second half on nestling life, male and female PSB contributed 173 (33.20%) and 348 (66.80%) feeding visits respectively at a rate of 9.44 visits per hour. During nestling phase of 13 – 16 days, eyes of the altricial chicks opened on 5th day after hatching and approaching the day-10, the chick appeared fully feathered. Synchronous hatching was completed in one or two successive days (within 24 hours) except for a single three-egged clutch with its youngest chick hatching asynchronously on third successive day. Video records of 80.62 hours diurnal observation time (OT) recorded over 07 consecutive days (between 6:30am – 6:30pm each day) of full incubation revealed that the PSB female spent 51.59 hours (64% OT) and 29.03 hours (36% OT) as attentive periods and un-attentive Periods respectively. Most of the eggs were laid in morning hours between 6:30 am to 7:30 am (n=25) and the incubation period was recorded 12 days (n=3), 13 days (n=6) and 16 days (n=1). ![]() ![]() The clutch size was 2 eggs (n=6) or 3 eggs (n=4) and the egg (n=17) weight, length and breadth measured 1.13☐.06 gm, 16.61☐.43 mm and 11.49☐.28 mm, respectively. In the study area the breeding season extended from March to July and the mean value of the nest structure parameters, namely, nest length, nest width and entrance diameter were 15.2☐.63 cm (range: 14-16 cm), 6.61☐.36 cm (range: 6.0-8.0 cm) and 3.67☐.34 cm (range: 3.0-4.0 cm) respectively. Observations on nest building, incubation, hatching, feeding, growth, fledging and other behavioural aspects of the parents/chicks were inferred from video-records, photographs and direct observations made on 11 clutches laid in 07 nests. During the breeding seasons 2017-2020, breeding activities of the Purple Sun-Bird (PSB), Cinnyris asiaticus were studied in 16 nesting sites located in the northern rural and semi-urban outskirts of the Khanna city in Punjab. ![]()
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