Birds Communities of Fragmented Forest within Highly Urbanized Landscape in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

摘要

Urbanization is one form of forest modification for development purposes. It produces forest fragments scattered in the landscape with different intensity of disturbance. We want to determine the effect of forest fragmentation towards bird community in urbanized landscapes in Kuala Lumpur, namely Sungai Besi Forest Reserve (FR), Bukit Nenas FR and Bukit Sungei Puteh FR. We used mist-netting and direct observation method along established trails. These forests differ in size, vegetation composition and land use history. Results show that these forests show relatively low number of species compared to other secondary forest with only 39 bird species recorded. The largest fragment, Sg. Besi encompassed the highest species richness and abundance with 69% species but lower in diversity. Bukit Nenas, the next smallest fragment besides being the only remaining primary forest has the highest diversity index with 1.866. Bkt. Sg. Puteh the smallest fragment has the lowest species richness and diversity with Shanon diversity index of 1.332. The presence of introduced species such as Corvus splendens (House crow) in all study areas suggest high disturbance encountered by these forests. Nonetheless, these patches comprised of considerably high proportion of native species. In conclusion, different intensity of disturbance due to logging activities and urbanization surrounding the forest directly influenced bird species richness and diversity. These effects however can be compensated by maintaining habitat complexity including high vegetation composition and habitat structure at the landscape level.