ISSN: 2578-4994
Authors: Ogunyemi OO*
The study was carried out in Ilejemeje local government area of Ekiti State, from July – November 2018, for the comparative evaluation of avifauna abundance and diversity of the three (3) prominent land use types of the area (Maize, Cocoa and Natural forest). A total of thirty –eight (38) bird species belonging to thirteen (13) order and twenty-one (21) families inhabits the land use types of Ilejemeje local government area of Ekiti State . Maize plantation land use type contained a greater number of bird species, than the other two land use types. On the overall a total of one thousand, five hundred and thirty-one (1,531) individual bird species were distributed within the land use types. The abundance of bird species vary with the three land use types, the maize plantation recorded the highest percentage value of 41.61% of individual bird species followed by the natural forest 38.83% while Cocoa plantation recorded the least percentage value of 27.56%. The community structure of bird trophic guilds in the study area revealed that granivore-insectivore, frugivore-insectivore and insectivore were the prominent trophic guilds group in the three land use types. Maize plantation had the highest species diversity and richness while the Cocoa plantation had the highest species evenness. The relative abundance score of species during the study showed that most of the birds observed were in frequent abundant categories.
Keywords: Granivore-insectivore; Frugivore-insectivore; Insectivore
