Abstract

7.Habitat Effect on Bird Species Diversity and Richness: A case Study of Gili-gili Forest Reserve Edo state Midwestern Nigeria
Okosodo, E. F. and Sarada Prasad Mohapatra
This study examined habitat effect on bird species inthe Gili-gili forest reserve, Edo state, Midwestern Nigeria. The forest reserve was divided into four compartments for this study: undisturbed forest, secondary forest, farmland, and wetland. The crop grown on the farm is as follows, rice, cassava, maize, and yam. Others are cashew, mango citrus,and oil palm. The point count method was used to collect data on bird species. Counting stations or predefined spots were established in roosting sites, wetland and feeding sites as well as forest edges. Counting bands of 50m radius were used for all the stations. The minimum distance between two counting distances per each study site was 200m. The number of counting stations was determined by the site size and 15 counting stations in each compartment were laid out and used for data collection. In all, 60 counting stations were used. Data were analyzed using thePAST model version 3to analyze the diversity index. A total of 712 bird encounters were made with one hundred and twenty (169) bird species belonging toforty-six (48) families and twenty (20) orders were observed in the study area. Undisturbed forest compartment hasthehighest bird species diversity (78), secondary forest (34),wetland (30) and farmland (27). Farmland compartment has bird species richness (273) followed by and secondary forest (149) undisturbed forest (121) and wetland (115).The diversity index indicates it was higher in the dry season 4.996 than the wet season 4.922. Keywords: Land use, Crop types, Bird species, Richness and Diversity, and conservation: