Ecological factors and spatial heterogeneity of Terrestrial Birds in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Abstract In Malaysia, multiple land use by humans has opened the way to substantial loss of wetland ecosystem, and shrinkage of the populations, habitat and food bases of avian species. However, the study of the avian population especially terrestrial birds becomes eminent to understand the complexity of wetlands ecosystem structure, and also develop appropriate management with robust monitoring tools to ensure their ecological sustainability. The study aimed to determine the eco-climatic factors that influenced the occurrence of terrestrial birds and to develop their habitat suitability models in Paya Indah wetlands (PIW) and Putrajaya wetlands (PW), Malaysia. The distance sampling point count technique using stratified random design was employed to survey (from November 2016 to January 2019) and choose 57 and 54 point stations around 14 and 24 lakes of PIW and PW respectively. An automatic linear modelling algorithm and geographic information systems were employed to compute the importance ratios of seventeen eco-climatic factors (hydrology, 9; climatic, 5; waterscape, 1 and landscape, 2). The result showed that some of the observed terrestrial birds individual and estimated indices were significant. The model showed that more than 50% of the land mass were moderately suitable in Paya Indah wetland while 35.22 % were suitable in Putrajaya wetland. Thus, the models’ adoption as management tools would help in the sustenance of the wetlands’ habitat quality and management effectiveness of the terrestrial bird species.