Abstract
We conducted a bird survey in the Sabaragamuwa University premises in southeastern Sri Lanka between 2001 and 2004. We recorded 145 bird species, representing 17 orders and 51 families from the campus. The birdlife included Red-faced Malkoha, a globally Vulnerable species and four Near Threatened taxa. The university premises suffer from severe habitat alteration largely owing to fire, filling-up of aquatic habitats, resource over-extraction, improper waste management, invasion by exotic species and livestock grazing. Several conservation measures, including habitat management strategies such as restoration of riparian vegetation, and wetlands, increasing plant diversity in home gardens and prevention of secondary successions in grasslands are recommended to protect the campus environment and to conserve its avifaunal diversity.
Highlights
The Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka (65610km2) is rich in avifaunal diversity
Our results showed that the residential areas including home gardens harboured the highest number of species representing 68% of the all the species recorded in the survey (Fig. 1)
The diversity of birds (Table 1) and their distribution with respect to available habitat types show the importance of the university premises as an ideal bird habitat, within the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka
Summary
The Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka (65610km2) is rich in avifaunal diversity. Over 471 species of birds representing 20 orders and 76 families have been recorded in Sri Lanka, (Kotagama et al 2006). These include 225 breeding residents, 128 winter visitors, four summer visitors, 106 vagrants, and two passage migrants (Rasmussen & Anderton 2005). 33 are endemic to the island (Kotagama et al 2006) Owing to this high diversity and endemism, Sri Lanka has been recognized as a country with “Important Bird Areas”, a “key Asian region for threatened birds” and an “Endemic Bird Area” (Kaluthota & Kotagama 2005). It is imperative to document distribution, habitat association, threats and conservation measures on avifauna
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