A note on the bird diversity at two sites in Khartoum, Sudan

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum. P.O. Box 321, Postal Code 11115, Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

The diversity of bird species is expected to vary with habitat type even at the smallest spatial scales. In this paper, we describe a preliminary survey conducted for the avifauna at two locations in Khartoum city, namely, Sunut forest and Tuti Island. The ecology of both sites is influenced by their proximity to the Nile River and thus they are characterized by dense vegetation cover. Moreover, the two sites lie very close to each other, implying that the climatic conditions are virtually identical. However, the two sites differ with respect to one major environmental respect, that is, the intensity of human influence. Tuti Island represents a man-made habitat and the vegetation at the site is mainly agricultural. On the other side, Sunut forest is a natural habitat and the vegetation cover at the site is dominated by the wild Acacia nilotica trees. The goal of the study is to compare the bird composition between the two sites in order to assess the effect of habitat type on the spatial variation in the abundance and diversity of birds. Overall, forty one species were recorded at the two sites during a five-month period: twenty four species at Sunut forest and thirty species at TutiIsland. Statistical investigation of avian diversity using Shannon index has detected a significant difference between the two sites, most likely due to variable human impact.

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