Abstract

Our knowledge of the Congo Basin Forest, which is composed of six countries including Cameroon, and which is the world second Reserve in terms of Biodiversity after the Amazon, is almost non-existent because of few studies carried out in this great region. Some shy studies focused on biodiversity surveys have been undertaken within a few countries for some groups such as Arthropods, Plants, Mammals, etc. but very little about Birds. Here we present data on the bird survey conducted in a region of Cameroon. To perform the bird survey, we used mist-netting method during six months to obtain the abundance of bird species. In order to analyse diversity and distribution, we accomplished analyses with SAS/STAT and PAST softwares. We caught 158 individuals belonging to 20 birds’ families, 70% of which came from passerine families and 30% from non-passerine. Compared with previous surveys in the same region, we newly recorded one genus, Bradornis, and seven species, Trachyphonus purpuratus, Psalidoprocne fuliginosa, Ptyonoprogne fuligula, Bradornis fuliginosus, Cinnyris batesi, Chalcomitra adelberti and Acrocephalus baeticatus. This high avifaunistic diversity is supported by estimated values of diversity indexes which show an absence of supremacy of one species (H’=3.62) and an equal distribution of individuals in their environment (J’=0.92). With the value of the Simpson diversity index of 0.96, our result confirms high diversity within the Eloumden avifauna. Our study confirms that the composition as well as the structure of the Eloumden mountain as observed in the field play a main role in the diversity of bird species at least at the local level. Based on our distribution and diversity analyses, the pattern of variation in distribution of birds in the Eloumden mountain appears to lean on environmental factors and particularly the vegetation, which played the main role with a bird mixture of poor and better dispersers, migratory and vagrant due to presence of luxuriant vegetation all year round, and this also explains the lesser competition noted (D = 0.96).

Keywords

congo basin forest, bird survey, mist netting method, distribution and diversity analyses, avifauna