Avifauna in and around Nagpur city of Maharashtra - an annotated, authentic, contemporary checklist Raju Kasambe* and Tarique Sani # *G-1, Laxmi Apartments, 64, Vidya Vihar Colony, Pratap Nagar, Nagpur-440022, Maharashtra. E-mail: rajukasambe@rediffmail.com, Phone: (0712-2241893) # 15, Atomic Energy Road, Near Wadi Naka, Wadi, Nagpur 440023 (Maharashtra). E-mail: tarique@sanisoft.com Key Words: Nagpur, Maharashtra, birds, checklist. Abstract: The checklist of birds in and around Nagpur city, Nagpur district, Maharashtra, is prepared. In this final checklist 280 species of birds are being reported as actually sighted and photographed by the authors and various birdwatchers of Nagpur. Introduction: Nagpur city is located at the center of India in Maharashtra state. Notes of birdwatching by the authors were compiled to make a comprehensive checklist of the avian fauna in and around Nagpur city. For the purpose of this list the boundaries were taken as Kanhan village, Pardi village, Koradi reservoir (21 0 26’N and 79 0 08’E), Vena reservoir (21 0 16’ N and 78 0 86’E) and Wadgaon Dam (20 0 82’N and 79 0 03’E). Nagpur city has got eight reservoirs in the city limits itself including Ambazari Tank, Gorewada Tank, Shukravari Tank, Telangkhedi Tank and Sonegaon Tank (21 0 10’N and 79 0 05). The city has got well-protected greenery in the following places viz., Vishvesharayya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) campus, National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI) campus, Ambazari Garden, Telangkhedi Garden, Botanical Garden, Seminary Hills, Central Jail premises, Textile Mills, Sitabuldi Fort, Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH) campus, Reserve Police Training School (RPTS) and many smaller city gardens. Also there are unprotected forests on the North and Western sides of the city (Gorewada reserve forest and Ambazari range of forests). Nagpur had remained an important birding place since the British-raj in India. Some of the pre-independence birding records available are by Blanford (1871), Jones (1923) and D’Abreau (1912, 1923 & 1935). The later did a comprehensive ornithological work in and around Nagpur in general and the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh) and Berar (now called Vidarbha) in particular. Materials and Methods: For preparing a checklist of the birds of Nagpur, notes and trip reports by amateur birdwatchers in Nagpur city were used as data-base for bird sighting records. Trip reports on the website www.nagpurbirds.org (owned by the second author) were taken into consideration for the sighting reports. Photographic evidence was given more importance to confirm the sighting records of rare birds in the area. Photographs taken by authors and or other birdwatchers are uploaded on this website and can be referred by anybody. Birds which were not photographed or confirmed by the authors themselves were not taken into consideration while preparing this checklist. The present paper provides the checklist and annotations on recent sightings of birds in the Nagpur area. Birds listed by previous ornithologists but not sighted in recent times were not added to this list. The abundance and status are based on the Checklist of Birds of Maharastra (Abdulali, 1972), the referred literature and in some cases on the observations of the authors.