Habitat preference and congregation sites of House sparrow (Passer domesticus) in the rural and suburban areas of Ganjam district, Odisha
Paper Details
Habitat preference and congregation sites of House sparrow (Passer domesticus) in the rural and suburban areas of Ganjam district, Odisha
Abstract
The bird House sparrow is associated with human habitation. The present study was carried out in different rural and urban areas of Ganjam district of state Odisha, India to find out the preferred habitats and congregation sites. Different environmental factors such as foliage cover, water and food sources, mobile tower and house sparrow number were determined by implementing line transect, quadrate sampling, field observation, direct counting and search and count methods. It has been found that the habitats and congregation sites are present in discrete patches along the rural and urban gradients. The house sparrow inhabiting sites have significantly more thatched houses, water sources and soil arthropods as compared to the non-inhabiting sites. All the inhabiting sites have moderate to high percentage of foliage cover (67.887±2.539%) although there was no significant difference in the mobile tower number between these sites. No significant correlation was found between the population size and different environmental factor except thatched house number which showed a small positive correlation (r2= 0.3954) being the most influential factor in determining the population size in an area. The mass dispersal or death due to sudden habitat destruction by cyclonic storm has deserted some habitats in spite of the presence of all the supporting environmental factors. The analysis brought the conclusion that the habitat preference is not due to a single factor rather all the factors work together along with an influential factor like thatched house in making the site suitable for the bird to breed and sustain.
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