Avian Species Diversity in Different Habitats of Shivamogga, Karnataka, India

Background: Avifaunal diversity and its abundance measures the quality of the ecosystem. Diversified landscapes were assumed to furnish more niches or supportive resources which in turn helps to increase diversity of avifauna. Aim: To assess the diversity of avifauna and its status in different habitats of Shivamogga taluk. Materials and Methods: Field exploration for assessing the bird diversity was undertaken in the four different habitats of Shivamogga Taluk. Point count method and line transects was used for gathering data on abundance and diversity of birds in all the four different habitats. Results: The present study was conducted in the study site for a period of one year. A total of 6,866 individual birds of 137 species representing 53 families and 18 orders was observed and 4 Near Threatened species and 3 Vulnerable species was recorded from the study area. Significant variation in avian species richness was observed from the four study sites (F=10.36, p<0.0001, df=5). Fisher alpha indices which consider both richness and abundance was higher in Site 1 (18.36) and lowest was observed Site 2 (11.32). The order Passeriformes dominated the bird community with 26 families and 57 species. Seven foraging guilds were observed in the study area. Insectivorous birds with 46 species were found to be dominant. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to find the positive correlation between the Near threatened, Vulnerable species and the study sites. Conclusion: These findings implicate that the study area has a good number of avian species diversity. Each habitat has its own specialist species. Avian species richness was found to be higher in forest ecosystem while the dominance and abundance was more in Agrarian ecosystem. Alpha diversity was measured to comprehensively evaluate the quality of the different habitats.