AVIAN SPECIES DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION IN AND AROUND NORTH NANDI FOREST, KENYA By MARK CHERUIYOT BETT A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ELDORET, KENYA 2016 ii DECLARATION Declaration by Candidate This thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other University. No part of this thesis may be reproduced without prior permission of the author and/or University of Eldoret. Signed ……………………………….. Date ………………………………. Mark Cheruiyot Bett (NRM/PGW/04/13) Declaration by Supervisors This thesis has been submitted with our approval as university supervisors. Signed ……………………………….. Date ………………………………… Dr. Muchane Muchai Signed ……………………………….. Date ………………………………… Catherine Waweru iii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my parents Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rono, my siblings and all those who love nature and biodiversity conservation for posterity. God bless you all. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I thank God almighty who has brought me this far and provided me with the strength, endurance, knowledge and vitality to finally come up with this thesis project. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Kenya Forest Service Rangers North Nandi Forest Station and the surrounding local community for their excellent guidance, patience, and provision of conducive atmosphere for doing this research. I would like to thank the department of Wildlife Management for their technical support. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, Dr. Muchane Muchai and Catherine Waweru of University of Eldoret for their wise counsel, support, suggestions, comments and improvements to drafts of this thesis. I would also like to thank National Council of Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) for their financial support. Finally I am grateful to all people of good will that helped me in carrying out this project. v ABSTRACT Species-rich tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, degraded, and declining in size threatening the survival of avian species that depend on them. Yet, avian species diversity and distribution in fragmented forests remain relatively unknown. This study was conducted between January 2015 and June 2015 in and around North Nandi Forest. The main aim of the study was to assess avian species diversity and distribution in four habitats; indigenous forest, disturbed forest, plantation forest and farmland. Birds were surveyed using point counts, timed species counts; distance line transects and mist nets. Shannon-Weiner diversity index H’ for bird community ranged from 3.060 for plantation forest to 4.053 in disturbed forest. Bird species richness was significantly different in the four habitats surveyed (χ2=26.747, df=3, P<0.0001). There was also significant difference in bird abundance across the four habitats (ANOVA; F=15.141, df=3, 1121, P<0.0001). Results on distribution of bird feeding guilds revealed a significant difference in abundance across the four habitats for insectivores (F=3.090, df=3, 297, P<0.0001) and granivores (F=10.496, df=3, 297, P<0.0001). The abundance of frugivores, raptors, nectarivores and omnivores showed no significant difference across the four habitats (P>0.05 in all cases). PCA multivariate analysis revealed that two variables; diameter at breast height and ground cover with eigen values >1 were strongly correlated with habitat structure in all the four habitats and explained 73.2% of the total variance. Linear regression analysis revealed a significant difference between bird 2 species richness and tree diameter at breast height (F=99.760, r =0.73, df=1, 1268, 2 P<0.0001) and tree height (F=97.134, r =0.71, df=1, 1268, P<0.0001). Bird abundance 2 also revealed a significant difference with diameter at breast height (F=77.654, r =0.58, 2 df=1, 1268, P<0.0001) and tree height (F=68.163, r =0.51, df=1, 1268, P<0.0001). Habitat destruction (70%) was the main detrimental human activity on the avifaunal habitats while subsistence hunting of birds (10%) only directly affected certain bird species. The middle age bracket (20-40 years) visited the forest most frequently (χ2=19.485, df=4, P=0.001), males were mainly involved in timber extraction and livestock grazing as opposed to females took part in firewood and medicinal herbs collection. Conservation efforts of forest birds should focus on maintaining large forest patches while in farmlands, bird conservation should focus on maintaining extensive environmental-friendly farming systems that promote sustainable agricultural development in North Nandi Forest and its surroundings. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………………ii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………...iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………….iv ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….v LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………….ix LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………x LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………..xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS…………………………………………...xiii CHAPTER ONE………………………………………………………………………………….1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the problem ............................................................................................... 4 1.3 Justification of the study ................................................................................................ 5 1.4 Main objective ............................................................................................................... 5 1.4.1 Specific objectives ...................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Hypotheses of the study: ................................................................................................ 6 1.6 Research questions ........................................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER TWO…………………………………………………………………………………7 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Background information ................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Species diversity ............................................................................................................ 8 2.3 Shannon diversity index................................................................................................. 9 2.4 Bird Surveys ................................................................................................................ 10 2.5 Strip transects .............................................................................................................. 11 2.6 Point Counts ................................................................................................................ 12 2.7 Bird Feeding Guilds .................................................................................................... 13 2.8 Threats facing forest habitats and avifauna ................................................................... 14 2.8.1 Habitat degradation ................................................................................................. 14 2.8.2 Habitat fragmentation............................................................................................... 14 2.8.3 Implications of Habitat fragmentation and degradation ............................................ 15 CHAPTER THREE……………………………………………………………………………..17 MATERIALS AND METHODS ........................................................................................... 17 vii 3.1 The study area ............................................................................................................. 17 3.1.1 Geographical location .............................................................................................. 17 3.1.2 Gazettement and History of North Nandi Forest ........................................................ 17 3.1.3 Climate ..................................................................................................................... 18 3.1.4 Hydrology ................................................................................................................ 18 3.1.5 Soils ......................................................................................................................... 18 3.1.6 Fauna and Flora ...................................................................................................... 19 3.2 Research Design .......................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Selection of study sites ................................................................................................ 21 3.4 Data Collection............................................................................................................ 22 3.4.1 Bird Surveys ............................................................................................................. 22 3.4.2 Bird feeding guilds.................................................................................................... 24 3.4.3 Forest dependency .................................................................................................... 25 3.4.4 Vegetation surveys ...................................................................................................