Analysis of Artificial Nest Inhabitancy and Factors Affecting Their Inhabitation of Different Avian Species in Uvas C-Block Pattoki Pakistan

Abstract

Artificial nesting is considered as a common experimental practice throughout the world. Artificial nest boxes offer a convenient way for carrying out experiments, identifying birds and capturing birds for research and conservation. Studies on the effects of urbanization on birds has revealed that species richness is negatively impacted by urbanization and fragmentation which decreases bird diversity while increasing bird density. This study was designated to determine the inhabitancy of birds inside artificial nests as well as enlists the factors which affect the inhabitation of birds in such nests. The experiment was conducted at the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, C-Block, Ravi Campus, Pattoki. Google Earth Pro (a software) was used to take the satellite image of experimental site. Further, geo-referencing and digitization of image were done by using ArcGIS version 10.1. This digitized image was categorized into four classes as roads, barren, buildings, ponds and agricultural land for quantification of land use of experimental site. Ten types of artificial nests varied by nests shapes, size and material were installed at five selected sites named as building site, barren site, pond site, road site and agriculture land site. Total sixty (n=60) artificial nests were installed at five nest sites, hence each site possessed twelve nests supported with iron wire and nails. All of these nests were installed approximately among 4 and 5m above ground. A measuring tape (40 feet) was used to measure the height of each tree by the yardstick measuring method. The area obtained after the digitization of the boundary of (UVAS) C-Block was 46.03 hectares. The findings indicated that throughout the trial's last three months (January, February, and March), twelve nests out of sixty were occupied at the ponds site, H.S-1, and botanical garden whereas others were remained unoccupied. The overall rate of occupancy was 20%. Further, eight nests were those where in birds’ activities were observed. It is concluded that inhabitancy of birds inside artificial nests is influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors including the presence of water, food sources, human activities nesting sites and predators. This study will contribute to provide information that helpful that will be helpful for the future conservation of birds and wildlife management.