Diversity, Abundance, and Distribution of Avian species in Bayero University Main Campus, Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study used to point count method to collect data on diversity, abundance, and distribution of avian species in Bayero University Main Campus based on different vegetation types, including agricultural, residential, and degraded savannah habitats. A total of 886 individual birds of 61 bird species belonging to 35 families and 16 orders were identified in this study. The 307 individuals recorded in agricultural habitat, consisting of 17 families, while 278 individuals were recorded in residential habitat, consisting of 12 families, and 301 individuals were recorded in degraded savannah habitat, consisting of 21 families. The counting bands of the 50m radius were used for all the stations. The distance between the two counting stations was 500m. The counting was observed in the morning (06:00 to 08:00) and evening (05:00 to 07:00). The study revealed that there was no significant difference between habitats and the bird feeding guild. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to test the difference in bird abundance between habitat types, revealing that the number of birds in the agricultural and degraded habitats differed significantly from the residential habitat as p < 0.05 (H= 3578, p= 0.0001). Whereas Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) used to determine species diversity index was 3.413, evenness of 0.927 and richness of 8.840. The finding revealed that the diversity of birds between the three habitats was not significant (F=0.098, df=2 and P=0.943 at α=0.05). There was no significant difference in diversity between the agricultural, residential and degraded savannah bird composition.