Diversity and Relative Abundance of Birds at Entoto Mariam Church Groves
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Date
2017-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Relative abundance and diversity of birds at the Entoto Mariam Church Groves was studied between February to August 2016, covering both dry and wet seasons. Point count method was used to investigate the relative abundance of birds in the sacred groves to provide current information. A total of 48 bird species belonging to 8 orders and 21 families were recorded. Only one species, Spot-breasted plover (Vanellus melanocephalus) was endemic to Ethiopia and White-collared pigeon (Columba albitorques), White-backed black tit (Melaniparus leuconotus) and white-winged cliff-chat (Monticola semirufus ) were the three endemic species to both Ethiopia and Eritrea in the study area. The Crowned eagle (Strephanoaetus coronatus) is near threatened species and the white-headed vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) is the only critically endangered species and the Spot-breasted plover (Vanellus melanocephalus), white-collared pigeon and white-winged cliff-chat are least concern species. The mouse colored penduline tit (Anthscopus musculus) was the most abundant species with a total sighting of 703 followed by Tacazze Sunbird (Nectarina tacazze) with 294 sightings. Moorland chat (Cercomela sordida), Willow warbler (Phylloscopu strochilus), Wood warbler (Wood warbler) and Common Bulbul (Motacilla clara) were the least abundant species with less than seven sighting records. Diversity and evenness indices during the dry and wet seasons were 2.33, and 0.75; and 2.83 and 0.82, respectively. The lowest species diversity (H’=2.27), species evenness (E=0.76) and species richness (20) were observed in April. The highest species diversity (H’=2.82), species evenness (E=0.84) and species richness (29) were observed in the August. Variation in diversity of bird species was statistically insignificant between months (df=3, p=0.94). Most birds (45.83 %) had scored Abundant in the ordinal scale while there were no species with Rare and Uncommon ranks.
Keywords: Birds, distribution, Entoto Church, relative abundance, species diversity
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Keywords
Distribution, Entoto Church, Relative Abundance, Species Diversity