TITLE:
Avian Abundance, Diversity and Conservation Status in Etago Sub-County Kisii County Kenya
AUTHORS:
Mokono M. Isaac, Shadrack M. Muya, Winnie Kiiru, Muchane Muchai
KEYWORDS:
Density, Similarity, Diversity, Abundance, Richness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.9 No.5,
May
27,
2019
ABSTRACT: Bird’s species diversity and
abundance are being threatened due to agricultural activities and anthropogenic
practices which causes habitat destruction and fragmentation. Understanding how
avian species respond to habitat destruction is important towards development of effective measures to ensure
that the environment is protected. A study on avian abundance, diversity and
conservation status was conducted in Etago
Sub-County, Kisii County Kenya from September 2018 to February 2019. Point
counts and time species counts were used to carry
out birds’ survey to determine their abundance and diversity in the secondary
forest, sugarcane plantations, human settlement and
mixed firms. A total of 4992 individuals were observed and recorded in the
entire study area. The human settlement had the highest density of 1.664 ± 0.18 birds/ha followed by sugarcane plantation with 1.092 ± 0.16 birds/ha
and Nyangweta secondary forest was third with 0.0819 ± 0.13. Mixed firms had the least density of
0.95 ± 0.017 bird/ha. Further Dunn’s multiple comparisons test showed
that Mixed farming and forest had no significant difference and had mean rank difference of
11.37. In mixed farming vs human settlement
there was a significant difference with a mean rank difference of 57.38; in mixed farming vs sugarcane farms there was no significant difference; in the four habitats, 114 species of birds
were cumulatively recorded. Out of these, 106 species were recorded in the
secondary forests, 98 human settlement and 87 species in the sugarcane
plantations and 55 in mixed farms. There was a significant difference in bird
diversity in the four habitats where Secondary forest had the highest diversity
of 3.85 and sugarcane plantations had a diversity of 3.71 while human
settlement and mixed firms had lower diversities of 2.6 and 2.5 respectively (df1 = 2, df2 = 0.0 F = 0.00001, P = 0.00001).