VDM Verlag Bird diversity of Chebera Churchura National Park, Ethiopia: The study of avian relative abundance, distribution and seasonal habitat association

The park is found in the region where the remaining 3% of the country forest cover is found, south west of the country.It is the area where you can see five crater lakes sparsely distributed, large extensive natural forest, good population of endangered African elephant . A total of 137 bird species belonging to 52 different families were identified during the wet and dry season surveys. Of which 5 of them, namely Black-headed Forest Oriole (Oriolus monacha), Wattled Ibis (Bostrychia carunculata), Thick-billed Raven (Corvus crassirostris), Banded Barbet (Lybius undatus) and White-winged cliff-Chat (Myrmecocichla cinnamomeiventris) are endemic to Ethiopia. Some other bird species like black winged love bird (Agapornis taranta) are restricted only to Ethiopia and Eritrea.Like any other national parks of the country, there is a pressure from the local people living around the park area in search of agricultural land and subsistence hunting.