Agroforestry is increasingly recognised as a land-use system capable of reconciling agricultural production with biodiversity conservation, yet quantitative information on avian diversity in farmer-managed agroforestry landscapes remains scarce in semi-arid India. This paper reports a rapid assessment of avian diversity in farmer-managed agroforestry plots in Kolar district, Karnataka, undertaken between January and July 2026 as an adjunct to farmer-on boarding surveys for an Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) carbon project. Birds were recorded opportunistically (ad libitum) across 79 plots in 21 villages of Malur and Bangarapet taluks in the Eastern Dry Agro-Climatic Zone. A total of 32 confirmed species belonging to 22 families was documented. Thirty species (93.8%) are categorised as Least Concern and two (6.2%), the Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) and the Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus), as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Ardeidae was the most species-rich family (five species), followed by Muscicapidae (three species). Open farmland and scrub generalists (14 species, 43.8%) and wetland-associated species (13 species, 40.6%) dominated the assemblage, and insectivores (12 species) formed the largest feeding guild. Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) and Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) were the most frequently detected species, with frequencies of occurrence of 58.3% and 41.7% respectively. Both Near Threatened species were associated with farm ponds and irrigation channels rather than tree-crop plots, indicating that retained water bodies materially enhance the conservation value of the agroforestry mosaic. Canopy-dependent species were under-represented (15.6%), consistent with the young age and open structure of most planted agroforestry blocks. The findings demonstrate that farmer-managed agroforestry delivers incidental biodiversity co-benefits, supporting functional, generalist-dominated bird community rich in insectivores capable of natural pest suppression. However, the opportunistic survey design and absence of individual counts mean the present data constitute a qualitative baseline only, insufficient for abundance-based indices or trend detection. The results provide an evidence base for claiming biodiversity co-benefits within the project's Monitoring, Reporting and Verification framework and highlight the need to integrate standardised bird monitoring protocols, prioritise retention of farm ponds and irrigation channels as discrete habitat assets, and establish long-term seasonal surveys to track changes in species composition as plantations mature. Converting the present checklist into a quantitative monitoring dataset would require modest additions to existing field routines, namely fixed-duration counts at a subset of plots, recording of individual numbers, and repetition across seasons to satisfy co-benefit standards such as the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards administered by Verra.