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Indian Raptors Separated Across Forest, Water, Cropland and Human-Dominated Landscapes

Wild Changeable Hawk-Eagle in Bandhavgarh National Park, India
Research · Ecology

A 2026 study of raptor communities at 445 survey points across seven Indian localities found clear ecological separation among birds of prey and owls. Species were associated differently with forest structure, water, cropland, vegetation greenness and human-dominated landscapes, while body form and spatial partitioning helped structure the wider community.

A point count is a survey in which observers remain at a fixed location for a set period and record birds seen or heard, allowing sites to be compared in a standardised way.

Researchers used standardized point counts from 2019 to 2021 and measured habitat around observations within buffers based on species-specific home-range sizes. Functional traits such as wing and bill measurements and tarsus length — the length of the lower leg segment — were combined with the habitat data. Diet composition was compiled separately from 193 published studies, so the dietary-overlap analysis describes knowledge from the literature rather than prey recorded during the Indian point counts.

Different raptors were associated with different landscape features

Greater forest height and tree cover were associated particularly with black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus), whereas lesser fish eagle (Icthyophaga humilis) and brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) occurred more frequently near water. Spotted owlet (Athene brama) was recorded more often where NDVI, a satellite-based measure of vegetation greenness, was higher. Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) was common in areas with more herbaceous vegetation, open deciduous broadleaf forest and proximity to water, while common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) were associated with open deciduous broadleaf forest and cropland.

Changeable hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus), black eagle (Ictinaetus malaiensis) and black kite (Milvus migrans) occurred more often at sites with more built-up land and higher human population density. The results therefore did not support a single response to land use across the raptor community: different species were separated along different environmental gradients.

Body form and spatial separation also divided the community

The functional-trait analysis linked morphology to the types of habitat used. Longer wings and wing shapes suited to soaring were characteristic of species using more open landscapes, whereas smaller, shorter-winged species were more typical of forests and shrublands where manoeuvrability is important. Longer tarsi were associated with wetland use and ground-based hunting, while deeper and longer bills were linked to scavenging and open environments.

Generalist species often showed substantial dietary overlap, but similar diets did not necessarily mean that species occupied the same places. Changeable hawk-eagle and black kite, for example, had the highest dietary overlap in the literature-derived comparison, while analyses at the three species-rich sites with enough data showed that greater dietary similarity was associated with greater spatial separation. More specialized feeders generally showed much less dietary overlap.

The authors conclude that habitat heterogeneity, morphological specialization and spatial partitioning work together to maintain diverse raptor communities. The study therefore links coexistence not to one habitat variable, but to several ways in which species differ in where and how they exploit Indian landscapes.

Sources and image credit

  1. Cecil Christopher, J. S., & Riegert, J. (2026). Drivers of raptor community structure in India: An integrated functional and spatial approach. Population Ecology, 68(2), e70019. https://doi.org/10.1002/1438-390x.70019Primary research article first published 11 February 2026. Standardized surveys at 445 points across seven Indian localities showed species-specific habitat associations, links between functional traits and habitat use, and spatial segregation among generalist raptors despite substantial dietary overlap.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — wild changeable hawk-eagle photographed in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India, 29 May 2026; representative image of one central species in the Indian raptor-community study; cropped to 16:9 · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Changeable Hawk-Eagle Nisaetus cirrhatus Explore species Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus Explore species Common Buzzard Buteo buteo Explore species Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus Explore species Spotted Owlet Athene brama Explore species

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