Bird Diversity in Shore Habitats of Erhai Lake,Yunnan Province

Erhai Lake is located west of Yunnan,and it is the important wintering region and foraging site on midway when birds migrating. However,few information on bird diversity and seasons changing in shore habitats of Erhai is available. We made transect survey on bird species diversity and abundant seasonally on 4 fixed lines in the west bank of Erhai with total length of 48. 2 km in January,March,April,July,October, November 2011. We carried transects 4 times each season in winter and summer,and 8 times in spring and autumn. A total of 115 bird species( belonging to 38 families and 13 orders) was accumulatively recorded,of 7 species were ranked as Ⅱ the list of important protected species in China. We accumulatively observed 61 species of resident birds,7 summer birds and 39 visitor and 8 passing migrants. According to the habitat chosen of these birds,19 species were natatores,22 species grallatores,7 species raptores,3 species terrestores,8 species scansores and 56 species passeres. The species evenness index and diversity index showed a highest value in autumn. Among 5 habitats recognized in the study area,bosky owned the largest species diversity index and evenness index and. the zone close to lake shore held the highest proportion( 33. 82%) of bird abundant accumulatively recorded in the study period. Boscage and water region close to lake shore were favorite habitat for birds that inhabited in lake shore. According to our study results,we suggested to provide more foraginghabitat to the shorebirds by constructing more sandy beach and soil beach near the lake bank. Planting trees along the road round the Erhai Lake will be helpful to reduce human disturbance to birds.