Avifauna Species Diversity and Distribution in Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State

Samenvatting

Birds are indicators of environmental changes which emphasize the need to study their abundance, diversity and distribution in order to monitor these changes.  The present study was conducted to assess the avifauna species diversity and distribution pattern in Akure Forest Reserve and provide baseline data on avifaunal species’ richness and relative species abundance. The bird species were assessed in the two vegetation partitions (Queen’s and Enrichment plots) using point count and line transect counting methods. Data collected were analysed using PAST version 3 model and BioDiversity Pro statistical packages. The results show that 40 bird species were identified in the entire community with 34 species each in the study areasand individual sightings of 114 and 70 in Enrichment plot and Queen’s plot respectively.Fifteen trigger species of birds for Important Bird Area (IBA) were identified in Queen’s plot while 11 species were recorded in Enrichment plot. The Shannon diversity index was slightly higher in Queen’s plot at 29.08 as the effective number of species which differed significantly from Enrichment plot at 27.11.The Queen’s plot was richer in bird species richness (4.06) compared to the species richness inEnrichment plot (3.18) while the Sorenson’s coefficient of species similarity indicated 83% similarity in bird occurrence in the two study areas of the forest reserve.