Abstract:
Botanical gardens play a major role in providing habitats and niches to many species.
Among the species groups, avifaunal distribution and feeding ecology can be observed
simply. Therefore, a study was conducted to assess the avifaunal diversity distribution
and feeding ecology at Henarathgoda botanical garden from February 2019 to February
2020. Data were collected in the morning (6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.) and evening (3:30 p.m.
to 5:30 p.m.) in different habitats using 7 transect lines of 150 m for 10 minutes in each
transect. As a percentage around 17% of the total number of bird species in the country
was recorded in the study area. During the study, 6395 individuals belonging to 81
species were recorded (42 families and 16 orders) including 07 endemics and 06
migratory species. The Shannon Weiner diversity, Shannon evenness, Simpson’s,
Brillouin, Margalef, and Menhinick indexes indicated 3.32, 0.34, 0.94, 3.29, 9.13, and
1.01, respectively. The highest percentage of feeding ecology was indicated by
Insectivores (33.33%) bird species while Carnivores, Granivores, Frugivores, Nectivores,
Omnivores, and Herbivores were 28.03, 16.67, 12.88, 5.30, 3.03, and 0.76% respectively.
The transect which comprises of Paddy field, Aquatic habitat, and Garden had the highest
number of individuals (1545) and species (68). Avifaunal distribution on the terrestrial
habitats of the understory layer, sub-canopy, canopy, emergent layer, and the ground was
21.37, 17.56, 14.50, 12.98 and 11.45% respectively and 22.14% of the species were
aquatic species. According to the study, distribution and feeding ecology of avifauna at
Henarathgoda Botanical Garden represent relatively wide-ranging variability while
having a considerable avifaunal diversity. Therefore, Botanical gardens' services can be
extended to places for biodiversity education/awareness and nature tourism in addition to
the ex-situ conservation of flora and recreation.
Keywords: Feeding ecology, Avifauna, Henarathgoda, Botanical garden
