Estructura, composición y variación estacional de la avifauna del Embalse Escaba (selva montana subtropical), Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract

Structure, composition and seasonal variations in bird communities in Es- caba Reservoir (Subtropical mountain forest) Tucuman, Argentina. Escaba Reservoir in Tu- cumán, is an artificial wetland, which has an approximate surface area of 500 ha and re- ceives the contribution of Chavarría and Singuil rivers and from El Chorro and Las Moras brooks. It is located in the Subtropical Mountain Forest of the Yungas. The aim of this work was to describe the seasonal variation in richness, abundance, composition, and diversity of the community of birds during the years 2006 to 2007 and 2010 to 2012. Line-transect censuses of fixed width and length (1000 x 50 m) were performed. Four transects were placed in each site, they were visited twice a season, with a total of 37 samples and 53 samples of additional countings. We analyzed variation in species richness and relative abun- dance, similarity of Jaccard and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices were calculated, multivari- ate analysis and Whittaker‘s curves were used to analyze composition. A total of 131 spe- cies from 39 families and 18 orders were recorded. Ninety of these species were residents, 36 regional migratory, four nearctic-neotropical and one altitudinal. Loss and degradation of natural wetlands in the region made this artificial reservoir acquires great importance due to the presence of resident, migratory, and typical birds of the Yungas. This would demonstrate the value of the wetland as a site of great importance for the conservation of birds.