Seasonal abundance and trend of avian species of Lake Marmai Wetland, Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

A reconnaissance survey was caarried out on Lake Marmai to select sites where census of birds will be studied. The selection was based on the water dept and ecological characteristics of the fringing vegetation. Point count census tecniques as outlined by (Bibby et al, 1992 and Sutterland, 2000) were used to count the birds. Fifty three (53) species of birds belonging to 27 families were recorded. Checklist of birds showed that there were variation in the abundance of bird species between wet and dry seasons. Data were collected in early dry seasons (Oct-Dec), late dry seasons (Jan-Mar), early wet seasons (April-Jun) and late wet seasons (July-Sept); for a period of two years. The families Ardeidae and Columbidae show the highest number of species while the species Dendrocygna viduatahas the highest density of 421.37/ha. in early dry season. Avian abundance indicated unstable population pattern for all the species in all the seasons, while the species compositionandseasonal abundance compared favourably with those declared as Ramsar sites in Nigeria.

Keywords: Seasonal abundance, reconnaissance, diversity, checklist and seasonal variation