Identification and Determination of Species, Population, Diversity and Density of Waterbirds in Rofaie Wetland

Rofaie Wetland is located near the Hor-al-Azim wetland and acts as the vindicator of waterbirds of the Hor-al-Azim wetland in the unsuitable conditions of the wetland. Therefore, the population trend, diversity and richness of waterbirds of the Rofaie wetland were investigated in the autumn and winter of 2008. The count of waterbirds was done using the Total Count method. This method is recommended for counting waterbirds in wetlands around the world by Wetland International. Diversity, richness, and density of waterbirds in the Rofaie wetland were measured using Simpson, Shannon-Weinner, Menhinink and Camargo biological indicators. During the 6 month study, 2127 individuals of birds were identified from 10 waterbird species and 5 families in Rofaie wetland. The most dominant species of the birds in the autumn and winter of 2008 were Phalacrocorax pygmeus (745 individuals), the highest number of waterbirds in December (823 individuals) and the lowest number in the month of October (11 individuals). The highest number of waterbird species was observed in Dec., Jan. and Mar. (6 species), and the lowest in October and November (2 species). The Simpson and Shannon-Weinner diversity indexes were D = -0.783 and H2 = 2.418, respectively, and Simpson and Camargo species uniformity was 0.460, 0.433, and also Margalf diversity was 1.174. The Manhinnik and Simpson domains in the autumn and winter were 0.21, 0.212, respectively. Rofaie wetland as a supporter of aquatic migratory waterbirds of the Hor-alAzim wetland plays an important role in protecting their generations.