Birds of Surat-Dangs: a consolidated checklist of 75 years (1944–2020) with special emphasis on noteworthy bird records and bird hotspots from northern Western Ghats of Gujarat, India

Surat-Dangs, historically known as a Bhil State, is the northernmost tip of Western Ghats in the state of Gujarat.  Despite being a part of an endemic bird area and global biodiversity hotspot, avifaunal diversity has been less documented in the landscape.  Two protected areas, Purna Wildlife Sanctuary and Vansda National Park, are designated in the landscape.  A handful of studies on birds have been conducted after Dr. Salim Ali’s collection in 1944–48.  We surveyed the landscape (both protected and non-protected areas) in 2012–13 and 2015–2018 for documentation of the avifaunal diversity.  We present a consolidated checklist of birds from our surveys as primary data and all published literature and eBird checklists as secondary data.  We have reported a total of 297 bird species belonging to 70 families and 21 orders including the first record of Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon Columba elphinstonii for the State as well as Purna Wildlife Sanctuary.  Here, we have re-reported various species, which was suspected to be locally extinct from the protected area or landscape among other noteworthy bird records.  We have identified bird-rich localities outside the protected areas based on the survey done by Salim Ali (1944–48) that can be used for future surveys.  We also propose the landscape to be declared as an Important Bird Area (IBA) as per Global IBA criteria (A1, A2, & A3), which will pave the milestone for future conservation endeavors in the landscape.