Diversity and abundance of avifauna species in Federal University, Gashua, northeast Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the diversity and abundance of bird species at the Federal University, Gashua, Northeast, Nigeria. The campus was divided into four (4) distinct habitat types-Acacia Woodlot (predominantly with Acacia spp), Neem (predominantly with Azadiracta indica) area, Open Grassland, and Lake Area. Bird survey was carried out for four (4) months (October, 2019–January, 2020) covering late wet season till early dry season using the Point count method. Counting stations of 20 m radius each were randomly selected within each habitat with the minimum distance of 100 m between two counting stations. Bird count was from 06:30 h to 10:00 h in the morning, and 16:00 h to 18:00 h in the evening. Each habitat was visited twice in one day per week resulting in a total of 64 man-days, 128 count visits and 32 visits per habitat type. A total of 71 bird species in 32 families comprising of 13, 812 individuals in the wet season, and 16,682 individuals in the dry season was recorded in this study. The relative abundance of bird species across habitats was comparatively homogeneous throughout the wet season with the exception of Neem area (0.6). On the other hand, Open grassland area had the lowest abundance in the dry season (-1.6). The lake area had the highest abundance in both the wet (1.2) and dry (1.0) seasons. Bird species were more diverse and even, but less dominant in the lake area (H′=3.413; D=0.0374; e^H/S=0.8205), while the Open grassland area showed less diversity and evenness, with more dominance (H′=2.836; D=0.07304; e^H/S=0.6818) during the dry season respectively. Bird species were comparatively abundant and diverse, while revealing the need to plant more trees and protect the lake area which sustained the highest birdlife at the Federal University Gashua.