Community Structure and Relative Abundance of Bird Fauna of Different Habitats of Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand-India

Present paper deals with survey of community structure and relative abundance of bird fauna of different habitats of Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand during May 2008 to June 2012. Study was carried out in sub tropical forest (Shorea, Dalbergia, Ficus, Magnifera sp, 350-1000m), pine mixed forest (Pinus, Quercus, Rhododendron sp, 1000-1500m), mixed temperate forest (Quercus sp. , Rhododendron sp, Myrica sp, 1500-2000m) and coniferous forest (Cedrus, Pinus wallchiana, Cupressus, 2000-2500m) in both district Chamoli and Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. Out of the total 202 bird species belonging to 11 orders, 43 families and 8 sub-families recorded in different forests along altitudinal gradient. Highest diversity of birds was found in a mixed temperate forest where BSD (Shannon index-H-) was recorded 3.8928 with total species richness (BSR) -159 species and 16304 individuals. The order Passeriformes and family Muscicapidae (with sub families- Turdinae, Timalidae, Sylvidae and Muscicapinae) in all habitats were dominant on other group of birds. The relative abundance of some birds like the Himalayan bulbul was recorded highest (13.49) in coniferous temperate forest.