Bird Species Richness, Diversity and Density in Habitats around Lake Solai, Kenya
Abstract
Habitat heterogeneity plays a critical role in structuring avian communities, particularly in ecologically dynamic landscapes such as Lake Solai, Kenya which supports a mosaic of habitats. This study examined bird species richness, diversity, and density across five habitat types: grasslands, wetlands, forests, farmlands, and settlements. The findings showed that grasslands and wetlands supported the highest species richness, likely due to a combination of abundant food resources, vegetation heterogeneity, and availability of nesting sites. While forests and grasslands had the highest species diversity, attributed to structural complexity and ecological resilience. Farmlands and settlements exhibited reduced richness and diversity, likely due to anthropogenic disturbance, habitat simplification and limited vegetation cover. Pairwise comparisons indicated significant differences in diversity among most habitats, except between forests and grasslands, and between wetlands and settlements, which indicates that certain habitats provide comparable ecological niches for birds. The Sorensen similarity index revealed high compositional similarity between grasslands and farmlands and distinct bird communities in wetlands, emphasising their ecological uniqueness. Although wetlands recorded the highest bird densities, the differences in density across habitats were not statistically significant. This is possibly due to seasonal movements or the distribution of resources across the habitat. Notably, wetlands hosted distinct bird assemblages, indicating their ecological uniqueness and importance. These findings highlight the need to preserve habitat complexity and connectivity to sustain avian biodiversity. Conservation efforts should prioritise protecting habitats like wetlands, forests and grasslands while promoting sustainable agriculture and proper urban land management. This will safeguard the critical Lake Solai ecosystem and its unique bird communities.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Sharon Jemutai Kimeli, Johnstone Kimanzi, PhD, Joseph Koskey, PhD, Irene Tieleman, PhD, Maaike Veerstegh, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
