The diversity of birds in Kuching and Kota Samarahan area

• Main Authors: Nurul Ashikeen, Ab Razak, Mohd. Azlan, Jayasilan, Hii, Frances Dai Sze, Mohamad Fizl Sidq, Ramji, Andrew Alek, Tuen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: UNIMAS Publisher, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2019
• Subjects: QL Zoology; Pacific; Common Sandpiper
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/28005/; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/28005/1/The%20diversity%20of%20birds%20in%20kuching.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/28005/2/Cover%20page%20july2019.pdf

Urbanization typically alters native bird communities which in return shifts the functional guilds which may have affected the ecological function in an area. These shift in species composition, however have benefited non-native species. Urbanisation particularly creates new habitat which can be successfully exploited by non-native species and exotic birds. Therefore, birds survey is important in urban landscapes to monitor local populations changes specially to detect potentially negative environmental impact on local bird species. Birds censuses totalling 1170 hours of observation along 195km of transects walk for 13 consecutive months yielded 27785 records consist of 52 species under 25 Families and eight Order in Kuching and Kota Samarahan area. Of all, five were exotic species, eight were migrant species, and others (39) were native species. The eight migrant species recorded were Asian koel, Barn swallow, Brown shrike, Common sandpiper, Pacific golden plover, Long tailed shrike, Richard’s pipit, and Wood sandpiper. Based on the observation, the most abundant species is Rock pigeon with 24 %, followed by Asian glossy starling 20%, Eurasian tree sparrow 18%, Common myna 14% and Javan myna 8%. Family with the highest number of species is Columbidae and Ardidae with five species each. The common species observed in the transects are Asian glossy starling, Common myna, Eurasian tree sparrow, Pacific swallow, Spotted dove, Yellow vented bulbul and Zebra dove. The importance of studying urban birds should not be ignored as it provides early indication on the quality of the environment and potentially important in monitoring zoonotic disease in urban areas.