Seasonal Distribution of Sri Lanka Dull-Blue Flycatcher (Eumyias sordidus)in the Horton Plains National Park

Abstract

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Seasonal distribution of endemic, Sri Lanka Dull-blue Flycatcher (Eumyias sordidus) was studied at the Horton Plains National Park, situated in the highland plateau of the Nuwara Eliya District, during January 2016 to December 2016. Three main habitats were selected as Cloud Forest habitat, Cloud Forest Die-back habitat and Grassland habitat. Three, 100m fixed line transacts were marked in each of the habitats using a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. Population of E. sordidus was recorded on three consecutive days in each month while travelling along the transacts, from 0530h to 1030h. Individuals were observed through a 10x50 binocular. KestrelTM 4000 weather tracker was used to obtain environmental parameters. Highest abundance, 15.27 ± 11.05 (Mean ± Standard deviation) was recorded during South-west monsoon season from May to September. Abundance of E. sordidus did not differ significantly among other climatic seasons (Kruskal-Wallis Test, p>0.05). During the South-west monsoon season the environmental temperature was 17.48±3.77C0 (M±SD), relative humidity was 83.20±10.62% (M±SD), wind speed was 14.29±12.80Kmh-1 (M±SD) and rainfall was 143.5±137.3mm (M±SD). There was a positively correlation between relative humidity and E.sordidus abundance (Pearson correlation r = 0.991, P < 0.05. Relationship between the wind speed and E.sordidus abundance too was positive (Pearson correlation r = 1.000, P < 0.05). Present study revealed that E. sordidus preferred high humid and low temperature environmental conditions.