Abstract:
Recent development projects taken place all over Sri Lanka seem to cause
massive decline in available habitats, habitat fragmentation and edges. Habitat fragmentation
and formation of edges threaten survival and reproduction of avifauna. However this has not
been widely studied in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to reveal
the bird-plant associations in selected fragmented habitats to collect baseline data. Present
study has selected edges located at the premises of University of Ruhuna (UP), Matara (5°56'N
80°34'E) and Kirala Kele sanctuary (KK), Matara (5°58' N 80°32' E) and Baruthakanda (BK)
a secondary dry zone bush land (6°13'N 81°04' E) situated in Hambantota. Birds, vegetation
and bird – plant associations at the study sites were surveyed along transects and established
plots (250 m × 25 m) from April- October 2016. Data were analyzed using diversity indices and
sites were compared for bird density and plant density using non parametric statistics
(Kruskal Wallis Test). Total number of bird species recorded at UP, KK and BK sites were 51,
60 and 59 respectively. Shannon – Wiener diversity was 4.30, 4.25 and 3.63 respectively.
Highest mean bird density per unit area was 2101 was observed at BK. Bird and plant
densities were significantly different among study sites. (Kruskal Wallis test value – 6.489, P =
0.039). As for the observations in this study, birds used plants mainly for feeding in UP, for
nesting and roosting in KK and for resting and nesting in BK indicating the site specificity of
the bird-plant associations. As for the comparison with the reference sites, edge specific bird
species at UP i.e. Blue – faced Malkoha, Stork – Billed Kingfisher, Yellow – rumped Flycatcher
and BK i.e. Bright Green Warbler, Cinereous Tit, Dusky Warbler were recorded.
These data further indicate the specificity of the study edges. Specific bird – plant
associations were identified in each study site i.e. Asian Koel – Ahu plant in UP, Red – vented
Bulbul and Acacia plant in KK and Purple – rumped Sunbird – Katu Andara plant in BK.
These data might be useful in terms of the bird conservation especially in setting priorities.
