The Survey of Density and Diversity of Birds in Two Protected and Recreational Forest Areas (A Case Study: Golestan Province, Iran)

Density and diversity of birds in two different forest zones, namely, Shasta Kalateh Protected Forest and Alangdareh Recreational Forest, were estimated and compared. Birds and environmental variables were recorded within 25 m radius in 100 sampling points. The first axis of Canonical Component Analysis segregated two main groups of birds. The first group consisted of Black Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Blackbird, and Cettis Warbler; these had a positive correlation with logs less than 7 m in height, the degree of the decay of logs, the density of canopy cover, litter depth, and the percentage of grass cover in Shasta Kalateh Forest. The second group including Bullfinch, Hooded Crow, and Robin had a positive correlation with the number of trees with the dbh of 50- 100 cm, the number of trees more than 15 m in height, the number of snags with 7-15 m in height, and the position of the canopy cover of snags in Alangdareh Forest Park. Also, according to the results of the analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) in the autumn and winter, there was a significant difference between Shasta Kalateh Forest and Alangdareh Forest (P=0.001).