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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Species diversity and feeding guilds of birds in Malaysian agarwood plantations Nor Nasibah Mohd Jamil, Husni Ibrahim, Haniza Hanim Mohd Zain & Nur Hidayat Che Musa 26 October 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 14 | Pages: 16954–16961 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5213.12.14.16954-16961 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2020 | 12(14): 16954–16961 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5213.12.14.16954-16961 #5213 | Received 04 July 2019 | Final received 30 September 2020 | Finally accepted 03 October 2020 C o m m Species diversity and feeding guilds of birds in u n i Malaysian agarwood plantatons c a 1 2 3 4 t Nor Nasibah Mohd Jamil , Husni Ibrahim , Haniza Hanim Mohd Zain & Nur Hidayat Che Musa i o 1 -4 n Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Mathematcs, Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author), 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] Abstract: In Malaysia, the current status of birds inhabitng agarwood Aquilaria malaccensis plantatons has not been specifcally studied, and litle research has been conducted to investgate birds in other agricultural areas (e.g., rubber, acacia, and oil palm plantatons) and disturbed areas. This study was conducted to assess bird species richness and relatve abundance, as well as feeding guilds, in two agarwood plantaton sites: Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Tanjong Malim (UPSI), and Slim River (SR). The presence of birds was recorded using a combinaton of techniques (mist-nets and point count), while various sources were used to compile feeding informaton. This study recorded 364 birds from 36 species in 24 families. Shannon diversity index (H’) values for the UPSI and SR sites were 2.896 and 2.492 respectvely, indicatng high bird diversity. The Bray-Curts index was 0.29, indicatng these sites share few species. Insectvorous and omnivorous birds were dominant in UPSI (31%), and omnivores at SR (32%). The commonest insect order at both sites was Orthoptera (UPSI 48%, SR 25%). While agarwood plantatons are relatvely homogeneous, they provide a variety of food sources and shelter for a wide range of birds. Keywords: Avian fauna, mist-net, point count, status. Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 October 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Jamil, N.N.M., H. Ibrahim, H.H.M. Zain & N.H.C. Musa (2020). Species diversity and feeding guilds of birds in Malaysian agarwood plantatons. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(14): 16954–16961. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5213.12.14.16954-16961 Copyright: © Jamil et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Al-Hilmi Group of Companies (Project code: 2016-0058-102-29 & 2015-0170-102-29), Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Competng interests: The author declares no competng interests. The views expressed are those of the author. Author details: Nor Nasibah Mohd Jamil is a biology PhD student at Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Mathematcs, Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Interested in ecology and conservaton biology. Husni Ibrahim is a lecturer (Associate Professor) at Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Mathematcs, Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Specializaton in Ecology, Conservaton Biology and Environmental Educaton. Haniza Hanim Mohd Zain is a lecturer (Associate Professor) at Department of Biology and also a Dean in Faculty of Science and Mathematcs, Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Specializaton in Animal Science, Animal Biotechnology and Histology. Nur Hidayat Che Musa is a research assistant at Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Interested in Animal Science, Animal Biotechnology and Histology. Author contributon: NNMJ—conducts, collect and analyze data from the research feld. Contribute in giving ideas and writng the manuscript. HI—principal investgator of the research grant and responsible for the whole research, including designing and planning the data collecton and main contributor for the manuscript. Revised the artcle before submission. HHMZ—co-researcher of the research grant and assist in designing and planning the research. Review and suggest some comments on the artcle. NHCM—assists in conductng and collectng data from the research feld. Propose some ideas and comments on the artcle. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Mathematcs, Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris for allowing conductng this research at Universit Pendidikan Sultan Idris karas plantaton and Al-Hilmi Group of Companies to provide research grant and facilites for this study to be carried out at Al-Hilmi Agrofarm Sdn Bhd, Kg Tambak karas plantaton. This study was supported by the Research Grant Scheme 2015-0170- 102-29 & 2016-0058-102-29. 16954 J TT Bird diversity and guilds in agarwood plantatons Jamil et al. INTRODUCTION vegetaton), they do not provide a great foraging opportunity to many bird species (Yahya et al. 2017). Peninsular Malaysia is home to 718 species of birds The conversion of forest to any plantaton to some from 96 families (BirdLife Internatonal 2017). There extent had annihilated nourishment sources that are has been considerable loss of natural habitat due to available to birds (Subasinghe et al. 2014), while young deforestaton for commercial plantatons such as oil and immature tree plantatons are known to lack of food palm, rubber, agarwood, and paddy feld (Achondo et al. sources and may be an unfavourable habitat for birds 2011). While plantatons ofen decrease bird diversity, (Sánchez-Oliver et al. 2014). As a result, the immigraton they can sometmes provide new food resources and of birds to another habitat will occur afer their habitat areas of shelter (Benayas & Bullock 2012), showing decimated, caused the reducton of bird abundance and similar species and the numbers of birds to nearby natve geographical distributon distance (Haddad et al. 2015), forest fragments, partcularly in the old plantaton, while which may also lead to local extncton partcularly for the bird species richness decreased when the young birds that cannot migrate and adapt (Mansor et al. plantaton was located far from the natve forest (Styring 2018a). et al. 2018). Although the baseline data on the diversity of The exploitaton of natural resources in the forest not birds and their distributon had been collected all over only causes their excessive consumpton but also leads to the years, to date, there is stll no study was done a severe threat to the ecosystem (Hashim & Ramli 2013). to examine the status of bird species inhabitng the The agarwood Aquilaria malaccensis industry is growing agarwood plantaton area in Malaysia. Hence, this study in Malaysia because of its high price in the worldwide was done to document the bird species inhabitng in the market. Malaysia is one of the most suitable countries two agarwood plantatons to explore the present status for plantng agarwood trees as it has suitable climate of bird community, their compositon and feeding guilds (e.g., 50–80% exposure to sunlight and annual rainfall of in ensuring a sustainable agroforestry and plantaton 1000–2000 mm) and soil conditons (e.g., soil pH range management in the future. The purpose of this study, from 4.0 to 6.0) which are the essental requirement for however, was not intended to compare bird data obtained agarwood tree growth and development (Yahya 2011; in both areas, but rather only to collect data on the bird Azahari et al. 2015). As the demand for agarwood species richness, their abundance and to classify their supply increased globally, agarwood plantatons feeding guilds by referring on comprehensive literatures, have been established as an alternatve to avoid the during a young stage and when the agarwood trees start uncontrolled exploitaton of agarwood resources to mature. The two study areas were chosen to cover resultng in their inadequacies in natural forests and both developmental stages of agarwood tree. large-scale producton of agarwood (Azahari et al. 2015). The overexploitaton of agarwood tree for its resin not only caused the extncton of agarwood species but MATERIALS AND METHODS also bird species in their natural forest habitat. The establishment of agarwood plantatons, however, might Study Site play a crucial role in an agroforestry system by providing The study was carried out in two agarwood plantaton habitats favourable for natve birds from natural forest.