The Bird Assemblage of the Cubanacan Protected Area and Its Ecological Relationships: Villa Clara, Cuba

Abstract

This paper describes an ecological study of bird assembling carried out in Cubanacan Protected Area in Villa Clara province, Cuba, in the months of June and July. The ornithological work was carried out in an area with xeromorphic shrub plant formation on serpentine soil. For the data collection, the area was sampled by the linear transepts method, two in total, 250 m long and 15 m wide on both sides of the observer. A total of 4 counts were made in the months of June and July, which were executed by the visual and auditory method, supported by a binocular. The data obtained were quantified and the different ecological indexes were applied. In the study area, there are 22 bird species belonging to 12 families of 8 orders, Passeriformes being the best represented order with 5 families and 10 species. Of the total number of birds reported, 2 genera (25%), 5 species (53.8%) and 10 subspecies (14.0%) are endemic. In the plant formation, 7 trophic guilds are distinguished in the months of June and July. A density of 59.25 individuals / ha was found in June, while in July it was only 53.93. The similarity index between both months was 70%, very similar to that obtained in this plant formation for other months. The diversity was 2.22 and 2.52 for June and July, respectively, while the richness was 13.0 for both months. Equity varied very little 0.79 in June and 0. 88 in July, so the distribution of the number of individuals is fairly uniform.