DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2020.v08i11.008

Pages: 402-410

The scarcity of arable land means that the forest is often seen as a "land bank" that can be used for agriculture when the need or necessity arises. This practice has led, in one way or another, to the erosion of biodiversity. In Côte d'Ivoire very few studies have been carried out on village forest birds. The objective of this work is to find out the avifaunal richness of Gbetitapea village forest (GVF) with a view to diversifying its tourist potential. To this end, censuses were conducted in this forest using listening points, mist net capture and recapture and fixed-term censuses along line transects with five-minute stopping points at listening stations. This methodology resulted in a total richness of 130 bird species divided into 43 families of 17 orders. Resident species (86.15%) and open habitats (59.23%) were the most abundant. The GVF is characterised by three species endemic to West Africa, 29 species belonging to the Guinean-Congolese forest and four bird species from the Sudano-Guinean savannah biome. This study has therefore made it possible to highlight the richness and avifaunal diversity of the village forest of Gbétitapéa which needs to be monitored.