Avifaunal Diversity

Comparative Study on Avifaunal Diversity in the disturbed and undisturbed forest of Gogona Forest Management Units, Wangdue phodrang.

Introduction

1.1. Background/problem statement

Avifaunas are the essential part of the environment yet the protection effort seems inconsistent. With more than 686 species of bird recorded so far, Bhutan is well-known to be the best birding destination in Asia. The pressure on timber and extraction of lops and tops by local residents obliterate the preferred nesting and foraging sites posing an enormous threat to a substantial number of bird species. Since the threats are evident with anthropogenic disturbance, this project will lead to comparing the bird diversity in logged and unlogged forest Gogona Forest

Different bird species show a wide range of social structure during any given phase of the annual cycle. Birds are broadly distributed and are found everywhere from poles to equatorial forests, desert to oceans, mountains to urban areas since it is most prominent forms of animal life(Tabur & Ayvaz, 2010). According to Birdlife International (2013), almost 80 percent of birds are found in continental regions and rests are found in islands. However, birds are distributed unevenly and different biogeography realms have different numbers and types of bird species. As per the Mundy & Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (2005), “Neotropical realm has richest land bird species which is followed by the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, Australasian, and then the Palearctic, Nearctic and Oceanic realms.” As cited by Ericson (2008), the general number of bird species and diversity in terms of the family are found in tropical regions where their vegetation cover is

(2007), the forest provides a wide range of variation in bird's habitat and even to bird species diversity. The significant sources of this variation include canopy tree species and forest vegetation structure (DeGraaf & Yamasaki, 2003). Species richness was preferred by more developed forest stages and by tree species diversity, but very dense, closed forest canopies (>70%) decreased species richness. However, the species richness and diversity can be influenced by the forest canopies closure. The coniferous canopy closure has a negative influence on specialist species, where else generalist species prefers varied canopy closure. Quite lots of studies have revealed that avian distribution is associated to forest habitat attributes at various spatial scales that is, not just at the stand level where the forest practices are executed, additionally at the landscape scale too (DeGraaf & Yamasaki,