Abstract

We conducted a bird survey in the Febe mountain in Cameroon in the Congo Basin. To obtain abundances for the birdlife, we used the mist-netting method and caught birds for seven months. In order to analyse the diversity and distribution of the avifauna, we carried out analyses aimed at obtaining indices of diversity and distribution as implemented in SAS/STAT and PAST software. We caught 187 individuals belonging to 19 families of birds and compared to previous surveys in this relictual mountain, we recorded two new genera, Iduna and Macrosphenus as well as three new species, Iduna pallida, Ploceus pelzelni and Macrosphenus concolor; many of the birds captured were sedentary and the rest were seasonal, partial and intra-African migrants as well as migratory birds from the Western Palearctic. With regard to bird diversity, the values of the diversity indices show that the Febe mountain has a great diversity of birds; our results thus reveal an absence of supremacy of a species and suggest a large number of species within this mountain (H’=3.24).With the value of the Simpson diversity index of 0.94, our result indicates an abundance of the bird species within this birdlife certainly favoured by less competition between individuals due to the presence of the vegetation in the Febe mountain although it is a semi-deciduous forest degraded by human activities and the value of the Equitability index (J’=0.87) reveals an equal distribution of the individuals in this mountain. The Shannon-Wiener index as well as the Dominance of the three mountains investigated, including the Febe mountain, compared to those of the lowland investigated (Ekoko II village) confirm a higher bird diversity in the mountains particularly with a high vegetation cover while the Dominance of the lowland appeared in a preliminary manner more pronounced than that of the mountains but not with a real difference when the vegetation is strongly fragmented.

Keywords

bird survey, SAS/STAT and PAST software, diversity and distribution indices, diversity, dominance