Diversity, Abundance and Seasonal Assessment of Wild Birds in Urban Habitat of District Chiniot, Pakistan
Diversity, Abundance and Seasonal Assessment of Wild Birds in Urban Habitat of District Chiniot, Pakistan
Ahmad Zaman, Azhar Rafique*, Farhat Jabeen and Tayyaba Sultana
ABSTRACT
The current study was conducted to find out the avian diversity of district Chiniot, Pakistan. The surveys were performed from March, 2020 to February 2021 on weekly basis, using point count method for the collection of data. Naked eyes and binocular telescope (10x50) were used to count the birds and camera was used to photograph the birds. The study area was divided into two major landscapes types such as open field area (agricultural land, river Chenab sides, canals and cemeteries) and built up area (settlements, residential neighborhoods, and institutional grounds). We recorded 87 species of bird of 70 genera belonging to 39 families representing 16 orders. According to Bull and McCackle method, 3 species were very abundant i.e. house crow, common myna, house sparrow, 6 species i.e. green bee-eater, pied bushchat, cattle egret, black drongo, red wattled lapwing, red vented bulbul were abundant, 7 species i.e. purple sunbird, bank myna, The white wagtail, baya weaver, laughing dove, Rofous tail lark and Greater coucal were very common, 23 species were common, 27 species were fairly common, 15 species were uncommon, 5 species were rare while black francolin was single infrequent species. A total of 268013 individual birds were observed from seven selected sampling sites. There was a highly significant difference (P<0.01) in the diversity and abundance of open field area and built-up area. All 87 species and 203304 individuals were observed from open field area while built up area harbor only 55 species and 64709 individual birds. Among sampling sites, agriculture land was the most dominant site in terms of number of individuals while highest avian diversity was observed at river Chenab sides. Summer season was the most fertile season with respect to number of individuals, followed by winter, spring and autumn while highest number of species was observed in winter season followed by summer, spring and autumn.
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April 2023
Vol. 55, Iss. 2, Pages 501-1002
