Use of Field Recorded Sounds in the Assessment of Forest Birds in Palawan, Philippines

The uses of bioacoustics in biological applications are getting popular in research communities. Among such application is the use of sound recordings in avifaunal research. This research explored the possibility of using the sound recording in the assessment of forest birds in Palawan by comparing it in widely used Point Count Method (PCM). To compare the two methods, a simultaneous point count and sound recording surveys from February to November 2017 in the forested slopes of Victoria-Anipahan Mountain in Aborlan, Palawan were conducted. The Sound Recording Method (SRM) listed slightly lower species richness than the PCM, but the difference in the mean number of species was not significant (F1,49=1.05, p > 0.05). The SRM was found to be biased towards noisy and loud calling bird species but it failed to detect the silent and rarely calling species. SRM was also equally sensitive as compared to PCM in detecting endemic and high conservation priority species. Because of these, it was recognized that SRM could be used as one of the alternative methods in forest bird assessment particularly if the concern is avifaunal species richness. Its potential application in monitoring specific groups such as endemic, high conservation priority and indicator species was also realized.

Keywords –bioacoustics, avifaunal assessment, bird calls and songs