Records of the Zoological Survey of India : Coastal Birds of Tamil Nadu, Occasional Paper No. 303

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Review of literature. 3. Description of study areas. 4. Material and methods. 5. Description of the species. 6. Observation and results. 7. Conclusion. Acknowledgements. References.

From the Introduction: "Coastal birds are birds that exploit coastal habitats (marshes, swamps, beeches and open water along the coast) to perform any one or more of the behavioural activities like feeding, breeding and roosting. These are small to medium sized, characterized by slender, probing bills and longish legs. Moreover, they are among the world\'s greatest migrants and an important biological component of coastal wetland ecosystem that plays greater aesthetic, sporting and economic values. Hence, they are the biological indicators of the sate of the world\'s health. In general, more than 214 and 149 species of birds have so far been identified as coastal birds that comb the beaches, mudflats, marshes and plains of the world and India respectively."