Population and ecology of birds in the «Chusovaya River» Nature Park

The article presents the results of studying birds of the «Chusovaya River» Nature Park (Middle Ural). The data obtained in these studies can serve as a starting point for monitoring bird communities within the park. Breeding bird communities of the major associations of the «Chusovaya River» Nature Park (birch forests, spruce-fir forests, pine forest, hay meadows, overgrown meadows, village Baron and Ust-Duck, floodplain the Mezhevaya Utka river and the Chusovaya river floodplain ) were studied in 2007 in early June - mid-July, when the species composition and abundance of birds are relatively stable. Y.S. Ravkin work was taken as a methodological basis for conducting route counts. Information and statistics indicators were used to assess species diversity of bird communities.Eighty one species of breeding birds of eleven orders were recorded. The average overall density of breeding birds varied from 76, 07 individuals / kmІ (hay meadows) to 1105, 96 individuals / kmІ (birch forests). The number of dominant species constituted from four (the Mezhevaya Utka river floodplain) to seven (birch forests, overgrown meadows). On the territories of the «Chusovaya River» Nature Park, the majority of birds belong to the European types of the fauna, dendrophilous ecological group and to the entomophagous trophic group.Our studies have revealed a relatively high diversity of bird communities in the major habitat types. At the same time there are significant differences in qualitative composition of bird communities. This is due to the fact that biotypes that are significantly different in composition coexist in the park. There are several reasons for that. This is, firstly, the high patchiness of forest plantations, which is typical of forests of the Middle Urals, and secondly, the consequences of economic activity, which led to the formation of overgrown clearings, meadows and coppices. In this regard, particular interest in the long-term monitoring of communities, which is in the process of restoring habitat of the park, will follow the changes in the population of birds.

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