Relationships between Bird Assemblages and Habitat Variables in a Boreal Forest of the Khentii Mountain, Northern Mongolia

Abstract

In order to determine the relationships between bird assemblages and forest habitat, we conducted surveys for bird assemblages in different forest habitats in the Khentii Mountain region, Northern Mongolia. A total of 1730 individuals belonging to 71 species from 23 families of 11 orders were recorded. Our findings revealed that passeriformes are the most species-rich order, accounting for 86.2% of the total species. The dominant species were Anthus hodgsoni, Parus major, Poecile palustris, and Sitta europaea in study area. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and permutation multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) showed that bird assemblages were affected by forest habitat types. Our findings also showed significant relationships between bird assemblages and canopy height and ground cover vegetation structure, whereas there were no relationships between altitude and other habitat variables. Thus, maintaining diverse forest habitats or restoring forest would play a key role in bird conservation and sustainable management of forest areas.