Features Of Waterfowls Community And The Foraging Habitat Selection Of Black Stork (Ciconia Nigra) In Pingshan Wetlands, Hebei Province

In the paper, we discussed the community characteristics of waterfowls in Pingshan wetlands, Hebei Province on the basis of survey from March 2003 to June 2005. Meanwhile, we also analyzed the foraging habitat selection of Black stork (Ciconia nigra) by using multivariate statistics. The results are shown as follows:1 , According to field investigation, there are altogether 80 species of waterfowls belonging to 16 families in 45 genus and 7 orders, among which Palaearctic region is dominant 62 species accounting for 77.50% of the total waterfowls, the next are Oriental region 11 species taking 13.75% and Cosmopolitan 7 species sharing 8.75%. There are 21 species of summer residents sharing 26.25% of the total number, 7 species of winter residents taking 8.75%, 45 species of migrants taking 56.25% and 7 species of residents sharing 8.75% . 3 species as the national first-grade protected wildlife were recorded namely Black stork, Siberian white crane and Great bustard, and 8 species were noted as the national second-grade protected wildlife including White spoonbil田l, Common crane, Aumstrong' s sandpiper, etc. On species level, Birds of anseriformes and charadriiformes are predominant in population in the wetlands. From March to May and from September to November are migration peak stages for waterfowls, while species and quantity greatly fluctuate. Comparatively, the former period is compacted.We analyzed the community diversity of waterfowls through Shannon-Weiner index, G-F index and Whittaker index (βw) in three reservoirs. Yehe river-Huangbizhuang reservoir has the maximal Shannon-Weiner index (2.5223) , the G-F index of Hutuohe river-Gangnan reservoir (0.6411) is higher than the others. On the whole, the diversity level of Shiban reservoir is the lowest. Whittaker index between Hutuohe river-Gangnan reservoir and Yehe river-Huangbizhuang reservoir is the lowest (0.2931), which indicates they have more similar species composition and habitats. All these demonstrate that habitat conditions have great influence on waterfowl diversity.2, Black storks breed and winter in the wetlands, and they are regarded as the first-recorded wintering birds of Hebei Province. They frequently appeared in Hutuoheriver-Gangnan reservoir and Yehe river-Huangbizhuang reservoir. Foraging habitat is roughly identical between reproduction and wintering period for Black storks. In breeding phase, Black storks preferred river-shoal and reservoir fringe to fish ponds, stream and farmland-meadow, while they never foraged in the farmland meadow in winter.Factor analysis proclaims vegetation coverage, human disturbance, interspecies competition, water and soil characteristic are the major factors which affect foraging habitat selection during breeding period. Black storks usually foraged in places with less human activity, more intensive waterfowl disturbance, better water quality, mellow soil and certain vegetation coverage. Similarly, the foraging habitat selection is restricted to some factors such as vegetation characters, vigilance, human disturbance, terrain, water and soil character in winter. They usually foraged in places with widen tract, some slope, less human interference, better water quality, less trees, higher grasses and certain vegetation coverage.Stepwise discriminant analysis suggests the differences of foraging habitat selection between two periods mainly focus on the slope, flow velocity, density of grasses and waterfowl disturbance.3^ Based on our conclusion and field conditions, we discuss the existent problems and some factors bringing danger to waterfowls. Furthermore, we propose some reasonable measures to protect waterfowls and their habitant.