The birthplace of Indian agriculture, located in Pusa (present-day Samastipur district of Bihar), is renowned for its British-inspired horse stud farm established in 1784. The evidence collected by British researchers of the time captures the historical importance of Pusa, with its favourable climate. This, inter-alia, laid the foundations of agricultural research mainly to overcome the challenges of hunger and famine among others. Knowledge of faunal biodiversity, natural pest management, and agro-biodiversity awareness becomes critically important, especially when comparing ecological data with century-old ornithological records.
C W Mason in his 19th century book, The food of birds in India, documented the food habits of local birds, with an exploration of the stomach contents of 1,325 birds belonging to 110 different species shot from agricultural plots, orchards, and wetlands around Pusa. The book cites how birds help/harm crops by consuming pests or grain as insectivores, omnivores and graminivores meanwhile providing insights about the existence of rich biodiversity in this place.
Drongos, swifts, rollers, and similar species were pure insectivores, known for hunting flying insects mid-air. Insectivorous warblers, however, possessed traces of floral buds and fruits in their diet. Graminivorous members of the starling family often damaged Rabi cultivars in leguminous crop fields, whereas glossy starlings exhibited dietary preferences similar to house crows and wild crows, ranging from insects to fruits. Mynas, being omnivorous, caused damage to cereal crops but also played a beneficial role in managing notable agro-ecosystem pests such as termites and grasshoppers. Predatory shrikes efficiently hunted grasshoppers, lizards, field mice, and small insects. Remarkably, two-thirds of the 55,000 recorded food items from bird stomachs were insects, including key pests such as Myllocerus weevils, Chrotogonus grasshoppers, and rice hispa beetles.
Building on the observations from the 19th century, during 2021-22, documenting approximately 50 species. Interestingly, of the 110 species recorded in Mason’s 1909 survey, 69.1 per cent primarily scavengers such as vultures are no longer found in the region. This decline is likely due to direct human impacts, including habitat loss, poisoning from veterinary substances, and broader ecological disruptions. Only 30.9 per cent of the original species have persisted into the modern era.
Among the 50 species currently observed, 68 per cent, notably Black Drongos, Green Bee-eaters, and White Wagtails have continued to thrive in the Pusa landscape since 1909, owing to their ecological adaptability, specialised foraging behaviours, roles in pest management, and reproductive success. The remaining 32 per cent are new colonisers, reflecting shifts in avian community composition. An analysis of changes in functional bird groups reveals a sharp decline in insectivores and raptors, both vital for natural pest control. Anthropogenic pressures, particularly climate change, have accelerated shifts in insect phenology, reducing food availability for insectivores and altering migratory patterns. Species such as crows and mynas now exhibit broader seasonal movements in search of food across regions. Additionally, crop intensification has further strained bird diversity through habitat degradation, changes in food resources, and disrupted community dynamics.
This historical comparison in bird repository illustrates the significance of biodiversity conservation, resistance to climatic variations and more importantly, the choice of food among birds. At a time when bird and insect populations globally face dire threats from pesticide use and habitat losses, this example of Pusa shows how heritage, science, and agroecology can unite. By creating intentional habitats for heritage birds and butterflies, the place becomes both a refuge and a dynamic data laboratory. Evaluations within the broader ecological impacts of land use changes can provide a comprehensive view of how agriculture affects biodiversity and helps to design habitat resilience practices. Promotion of biodiversity frameworks based on ecological distinctness can prioritise need-based involvement of conservational efforts through butterfly gardens. By integrating century-old data with eBird-linked checklists, practitioners can create a living database that tracks species trends over time integrating artificial intelligence to link the logs of birds’ audio with present databases, which can help in making the model more vibrant. Further, such long-term dataset comparisons can guide decisions in Integrated Pest Management (IPM), suggesting the use of perches, native fruit trees, and bird refuges within experimental plots.
M S Sai Reddy, Mohit Sharma and Dhruv Singh are Assistant Professors at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar
Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth