Aspects of the Ecology of three Communally Breeding Bird Species on Legon Campus

Abstract

This study compares some ecological aspects (territory size, group size, clutch size and food supply rate) of three communally breeding bird species, namely Yellow-billed Shrike (Corvinella corvina), Green Wood-hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) and Brown Babbler (Turdoides plebejus), on the Legon campus of the University of Ghana. This was in response to the limited literature on communal breeding bird species despite their widespread distribution in Africa. The methodology involved direct observations and the use of the convex polygon method in the determination of the territory sizes in both the wet and dry seasons. In the wet season, a total of 245 Yellow-billed Shrike, 74 Green Wood-hoopoe and 120 Brown Babbler were recorded compared to 281 Yellow-billed Shrike, 59 Green Wood-hoopoe, and 119 Brown Babbler in the dry season. These constituted 31 territories of the Yellow-billed Shrike, 11 territories of the Green Wood-hoopoe and 14 territories of the Brown Babbler. Territorial groups generally exist throughout the year, and each group member helped defend the group’s territory and feeding of nestlings/breeding females. The mean territory sizes of the Yellow-billed Shrike were 1.11±0.51 and 1.22±0.52 hectares, the Green Wood-hoopoe were 4.17±1.92 and 3.93±1.35 hectares, and that of the Brown Babbler were 1.71±0.63 and 2.43±0.87 hectares in both the wet and dry seasons respectively. Thus, the territory sizes of all the bird species were similar except the Brown Babbler that had a significantly larger territory size in the dry season (P < 0.05). The mean group sizes of the Yellow-billed Shrike were 9.07±3.45 and 9.06±3.40, the Green Wood-hoopoe were 6.73±3.29 and 7.38±3.78, and that of the Brown Babbler were 8.57±3.50 and 8.50±3.23 in both the wet and dry seasons respectively. There was no significant difference in the group sizes between the two seasons for any of the three species (p > 0.05).