The diversity and relative abundance of waterbirds in boye, kito and koffe wetlands, at the periphery of jimma town, southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Bird species diversity and relative abundance survey at Boye, Kito and Koffe wetlands were conducted from late September to early November, 2014 for wet and from December, 2014 to February, 2015 for dry season. Based on the area size and habitat heterogeneity Boye and Koffe were divided into two blocks, and Kito in one block. Consequently, two representative line-transects that ranges 1.5 to 1.8 km long at 500m space between were established on each blocks. A total of 3321 individual birds from 107 belonging to 42 families and 12 orders were recorded. Of the total 107 overall bird species recorded 50 were wetland specialist and 57 wetland generalist birds. Maximum numbers of wetland specialist waterbird species in wet season were recorded from Boye wetland (40) and during dry seasons from Kito wetland (35). Minimum numbers of wetland specialist waterbird species in both wet and dry seasons were recorded from Koffe wetland (24) and (21). During wet season, the highest (H`: 2.727) wetland specialist waterbird diversity were recorded from Boye wetland and least (H`: 2.383) from Koffe, although in dry season the highest (H`: 2.935) were at Boye wetland and smallest (H`: 2.397) in Kito. Significant difference in wetland specialist waterbird diversity between wet and dry seasons were recorded at Boye and Koffe wetlands (Pair Independent T-test: t= -2.201, n=43 and t=2.309, n= 28 where P<0.05). Maximum numbers of wetland generalist bird species during wet season were recorded from kito wetland (39) and minimum was recorded from Boye wetland (32). During dry season maximum numbers of wetland generalist bird species were recorded from Koffe wetland (34) and minimum numbers was from Boye and Kito wetlands (28). Highest (H’=3.236) wetland generalist bird species diversity during wet season was recorded from koffe wetland and smallest (H’=3.026) from Boye; while, during dry season highest (H’=3.015) was recorded from Koffe and smallest (H’=2.456) from Boye wetland.