Habitat Structure of Bird Communities in Forests of the Wetlands in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstrakt

The potential of wetland habitats to the management of birds is grossly unknown in many areas across
Nigeria. Many wetland forest communities support valuable pools of biodiversity and genetic resources
thereby making them important sites for conservation and scientific interest. This study, assessed the habitat
structure of bird communities in the forests of three wetlands namely, Egbe, Ero, and Ogbese in Ekiti State,
Southwest Nigeria using standard methods. Diversity indices between the wetland forest vegetation types
were assessed. The result shows that 87 species of plants in 28 families were found in the three wetland
forests. 83 species in 27 families at Egbe, 85 species in 28 families at Ero and 74 species in 27 families at
Ogbese. The plant families with the largest number of species were Euphorbiaceae (20), Annonaceae (12),
Caesalphiniodeae (8) and 72 species (82.75%) common to the wetland forests. The highest floristic similarity
index was found between Egbe and Ogbese wetland vegetations but the diversity of plants differed
significantly among the wetland forest vegetations. Egbe and Ero wetland forests showed higher species
richness (47, 42) and diversity indices (3.18, 3.16) respectively. The occurrence of fair flora species richness
and diversity indicates that the wetland vegetations are still within tolerable ecological level such that an
effective management scheme to maintain the ecological qualities is developed in order to conserve the
wetlands and its forest types from further degradation and engender flora regeneration.