Species Diversity And Richness Of Wild Birds In Dagona- Waterfowl Sanctuary, Nigeria
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Rural Outreach Program
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The study of bird species diversity and richness in Dagona-Waterfowl
Sanctuary was carried out during the midst of both early wet and late
dry seasons, to provide comprehensive data on wild birds. Dagona
Sanctuary is located within the Bade- Nguru Wetland sector. It is one
of the important bird areas marked for the conservation of avifauna
species in sub-Sahara region, Nigeria. Line Transect method was used to
carry out birds' survey at three different lake sites, namely: Gatsu
(site:1), Mariam (site: 2) and Oxbow (site: 3). The instruments used
were GarminTM 12 Global Positioning System (GPS), a pair of binoculars
for bird's identification, a field guide test- book and a 1,000 meters
tape-rule. The data were tested with the Kolmogorov- Smirnov method o
determine distribution level and birds' diversity was assessed using
Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index, while parametric tests were applied for
all data. The results showed that bird species diversity was normally
distributed in all the sites, site 2 had the highest diversity (2.74)
compared to site 1: (1.84) and site 3: (1.62). Likewise, bird species
richness in the area was normally distributed and significantly
different (P<0.05) among the three sites. Site 1 had the highest
number of bird species richness (16.36) (Species diversity is different
species of birds at the site, while species richness is referring to
specific species population), compared to site 2: (14.32) and site 3:
(11.51). It was observed that there is a significant relationship
between vegetation density and bird species diversity, because as tree
density increases, diversity of bird species decreases. Therefore,
there is a significant relationship between vegetation density and bird
species diversity. A total of 135 bird species in 40 families was
recorded during the survey. Seventy-four percent were found in site1,
sixty-three percent in site 2 and seventy-one percent in site 3. The
majority of wetland birds observed during this study were resident (
Ardeidae family), migratory ( Accipitridae family) and palearctic
species (Yellow Wagtail, Warblers, Northern Shoveler and Sandpipers).
It can be concluded that wild birds are good indicators of
environmental condition, revealing the state of the wetland. Some sites
were more disturbed, as observed in site 1 and site 3. It was, however,
recommended that regular monitoring of the sites should be carried out
so as to control changes in the state of the wetland ecosystem.
Keywords
vegetation, richness, diversity, birds, Wetland
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