"JSPS-VCC Core University Program International Seminar On Wetland And Sustainability 2009 - Wetland & Climate Change: The Needs For Integration" 26 – 28 June 2009 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah ASSESSMENT OF TERRESTRIAL BIRDS AT PAYA INDAH WETLAND RESERVE, PENINSULAR MALAYSIA Muhammad Nawaz Rajpar 1 and Mohamed Zakaria 1 1 Muhammad Nawaz Rajpar Ph.D Programme (Wildlife Management), Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia rajparnawaz@gmail.com 1 Mohamed Zakaria Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia mzakaria@putra.upm.edu.my ABSTRACT The study was carried out at Paya Indah Wetland Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia to monitor the status of terrestrial bird species using distance sampling point count method. A total of 10784 bird observations belong to 75 species and 26 families were recorded. The results showed that Treron vernans (15.97%) and Pycnonotus goiavier (15.60%) were most abundant species with highest number of observations and there were thirteen rare species with one observation only (0.009%). The Sylviidae was dominant family with eight species and Centropidae, Centropidae, Coraciidae, Dicruridae, Emberizidae, Hirundinidae, Oriolidae, Pachycephalidae, Turdidae and Turnicidae were the rarest families’ only one species each. The terrestrial bird diversity (N 1 = 22.99) Shannon’s diversity index, species richness (R 1 = 8.08) Margalef’s richness index and species evenness (E = 0.82) McIntosh evenness index was higher as compared to waterbirds diversity (N 1 = 9.55), species richness (R 1 = 2.29) and species evenness (E = 0.65) in the study area. The trophic structure shows that the Insectivore was the most abundant group of birds (49.33%) and Granivore was the rarest group of birds (4%). This study clearly shows that freshwater wetlands are important areas for terrestrial bird species due heterogeneous vegetation, richness of food resources, safe roosting and loafing sites. Keywords: Terrestrial bird, Wetland, Diversity, Trophic structure, Paya Indah, Richness