The biodiversity characters of birds in Yellow River Wetlands in Shaanxi province

The surveys on biodiversity characters were carried out with the methods of line transect from July to August 2010 in four types of habitats in Yellow River Wetlands in Shaanxi province. A total of 61 bird species belonging to 15 orders, 33 families were recorded. Among them, 1 species is rank I nationally protected birds, 2 species are rank II nationally protected birds, 4 species are included in the List of Key Species of Wildlife within Provincial-protection in Shaanxi, 52 species collected in “The List of Territorial Wildlife of National Protected Beneficial or Valuable Species for Economic and Scientific Research” stipulated by National Forestry Bureau. The results also show that species diversity indices of bird communities decrease from wetland to main canal, and are the lowest in loess cliffs. This result has indicated that the structure of bird community is in close relationship with the spatial heterogeneity of the environment.