A comparative assessment of diversity and density of birds in Chilimo Forest, Ethiopia

Species diversity of birds at Chilimo forest was studied during January-Mar ch 1998. A point-transect method with fixed radius (radius = 25 m) points w as used for this study. Two counting periods of five and eight minutes were used to record bird data at each point. Habitat characteristics were recor ded at each point using 10 m x 5 m subplot. A total of 63 bird species were recorded during the point counts, while around 114 bird species were obser ved to occur in the area, for the checklist. Of these, 101 were resident sp ecies, I I palearctic migrants and two inter-African migrants. Of the total list of bird species, 32 Afrotropical Highland Biome (HB) species, three e ndemic and nine near-endemic species to Ethiopia were recorded. The distrib ution of bird species follows the log-series, demonstrating the dominance o f the community by few species. Zosterops poliogaster, an HB species, was t he most abundant species in the bird community. The average density of all bird species recorded in the study was 98.6 individuals per hectare. Measur ement of bird species diversity using different count periods were not sign ificantly different. CCA ordination techniques revealed that altitude was a major environmental variable responsible for the variation of bird species distribution in the study area. Comparison of bird species composition in Chilimo with similar forests in Ethiopia showed Menagesha, the closest fore st to Chilimo,to be the most similar. Chilimo qualifies as an Important Bir d Area for conservation of HB bird species, since it harbors high number of such species (67%) occurring in Ethiopia. Hence,we recommend Chilimo fores t to be included in the Important Bird Areas system of the country with app ropriate protection, and carry out further research on the functional relat ionships of birds and other components of the forest ecosystem.