Diversity and Relative Abundance of Birds in Berek Forest, Oromia Special Zone, Berek Woreda,Central Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Study of the diversity and relative abundance of birds was conducted from October 2015 to April 2016 in Berek Forest, near Sendafa town of Oromia special Zone, Berek Woreda,Central Ethiopia, using the Timed Species Count System (TSCS). A total of 89,293 individual birds were encountered that belonged to 78 species, 32 families and 13 orders in 100 hours of observation. The observation period was equally distributed between the months of October, December, February and April. The number of species per Order ranged from 1-38, Passeriformes, were represented by 38 species (47.7%) while Coliiformes, Coraciformes, Cuculiformes, and Pelacaniformes were represented by one species only. The number of species per family ranged between 1 and 10. Accipitridae were represented by 10 species followed by Motacillidae with six species. Diversity index was calculated for each sampling month and the highest value was obtained for October (H'=3.8488) and the lowest for December (H'=3.247). The overall diversity during the entire study period was (H'= 3.743).The highest evenness index was registered in December /0.89/and the lowest was in October (0.859) with the total species richness 67 and78 respectively. Abundance score of abundant bird species was highest . 92% of the species scored “Abundant” ordinal scale while 3.84% and 5.1% of the species had ranks of “Common” and “Frequent” respectively. The Cape eagle owl (Bubo capensis) was the most abundant species with a total sighting of 8600 followed by Grayish eagle owl (Bubo cinerascens) with 6900 sightings. Sooty falcon (Falco concolor), Cape rook (Corvus capensis), and Long billed pipit (Anthus similis) were the least abundant species with <10 sighting records. Most of the birds recorded were residents (57.7%) followed by Palearctic migrants (20.5%). The majority of the species are not within the Red List of threatened species except 2.5% which are Vulnerable. Five of the recorded species; Rouget‟s rail (Rougetius rougetii), Wattled ibis (Bostrychia carunculata), Thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris), Abyssinian catbird (Parophasam galinieri) and Black-winged love bird (Agapornis taranta) are endemic to Ethiopia. For better management planning it is recommended that further studies on habitat diversity and ecology of key stone species should continue.
Keywords: Avian diversity, species composition, Berek forest, relative abundance, diversity index
Description
Keywords
Avian Diversity, Species Composition, Berek Forest, Relative Abundance, Diversity Index