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Abstract

ABSTRACT Waterbirds are most important component of freshwater wetlands and they may visit different areas in order to feed, nest and roost for their survival. The objective of this research was to determine species abundance and feeding guilds of waterbirds at Putrajaya artificial freshwater wetland, Selangor Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 3720 bird detections that belongs to 21 waterbird species of 7 families were recorded using distance sampling point count method from March to December, 2009. The Purple Heron; Ardea purpurea (1083 detections; 29.11%), Black-crowned Nightheron; Nycticorax nycticorax (811 detections; 21.80%), Grey Heron; Ardea cinerea (506 detections; 13.60%) were the three most abundant waterbird species and Pintail Snipe; Gallinago stenura was the rarest waterbird species recorded only once (0.03%). The Ardeidae (2816 observations; 75.70) was the most dominant family with highest number of observation and Scolopacidae (12 observation; 0.32%) was the rarest waterbird family with lowest number of detections. The Piscivore/Insectivore (78.79%) was the most dominant guild and Insectivore (0.30%) was the rarest guild in the study area. The results show that Putrajaya artificial freshwater wetland is highly attractive to wide array of waterbirds. Keywords: Waterbirds, Freshwater, Wetland, Feeding Guild, Point Count