Diversity, abundance, and habitat association of birds in forest and farmlands of Darimu district, Iluababor zone, Oromia regional state, Southwestern Ethiopia.

Abstract

The study was carried out to estimate diversity, distribution and abundance of avian species in Darimu forest and farmland in Darimu district, Iluababor zone, and Oromia regional state southwestern Ethiopia covering wet and dry seasons from September 2021 to February 2022. The study was conducted in forests and farm-lands by using the transect line count and point count methods. A total of 46 species of birds were identified during the whole study period. Of these, 14 species were observed during the dry season and 13 species in the wet season and19 species in the both season in the study. Bird Species diversity was higher during the dry season in both habitats compared to the wet season. During the dry season, the highest diversity of bird species was observed in the farmland habitats (H'= 3.172) and the least bird species diversity was observed in forest habitats (H'=3.071). The highest evenness was observed in the farm-land habitats during the dry season (E=0.9934) followed by forest habitats (0.9801).This indicates that farm-land habitats are suitable for birds by providing feeding requirements. Within the same habitat, the percentage comparison of similarity showed the highest species similarity in the forest habitat (54%) during both seasons. The least similarity was observed in farmland (40%) during both seasons. The lowest number of species was recorded in farmland during the wet season. The number of species did not show significant differences between seasons. The mean abundance scores did not significantly vary between seasons. Bird species showed the highest mean abundance score in the forest during the dry season followed by forests during the wet season. The lowest mean abundance score was observed in farmland during the dry season. The mean abundance scores were significantly varied between forest and farmland habitats. The research information can serve as baseline for others researchers by giving the species diversity of birds of the forest and farmlands of Darimu district