Microhabitat Requirements for Bird Community Diversity in Reservoir Park, Kuching, Sarawak

• Main Author: Nur Amira, Mohd Tahir
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2017
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences; QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/30996/2/Nur%20Amira.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/30996/

One of the important roles of urban recreational parks is to provide refuge for urban bird community. This study was conducted at Reservoir Park, Kuching (RPK). The primary objective of this study is to determine the microhabitat requirements for bird community in selected urban recreational park. The secondary objective is to identify the diversity of bird in the microhabitats. The methodology used in this study was point count survey. There were 10 stations (20 m x 20 m quadrat) established with distance of 100 m from each other. The survey was done from 0800 hr until 1100 hr in the morning and 1500 hours to 1800 hours in the evening. Overall, 28 species of birds were recorded in RPK. A total of 21 species were observed inside the quadrats while seven species were observed outside of the quadrats. Based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA), four parameters were proven to have significant influence on bird community diversity. These include (i) distance from water sources, (ii) percentage of tree cover, (iii) percentage of canopy cover and (iv) number of trees with DBH 0-49 cm. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to determine Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) value for the four selected parameters. From the AIC value, the distance from water sources was ranked first followed by percentage of tree cover, percentage of canopy cover and number of trees with DBH of 0-49 cm. These four parameters were important to provide food sources, shelter, water for drink and the nesting site.