Group size and habitat selection of Oriental skylark(Alauda gulgula)in summer and autumn at Changde Taohuayuan Airport of Hunan Province

As one of the resident birds in all of arports in Hunan Province, Oriental skylark (Alauda gulgula) behaves more frequent activities in summer and autumn especially, which impact on the safe operation of aircrafts greatly. To guide the work of bird protection around the airport, a fundamental study about the aggregative behaviors and habitat selections of oriental skylark was conducted from July, 2008 to October, 2009 at Changde Taohuayuan Airport, Hunan Province. According to the environment in the flight area, the categories and heights of vegetation picked out as two basic ecological factors for studying. The results showed that the clustering frequencies in summer and autumn were greatest significant (P<0.01), and there were significant differences between individuals from different group sizes (P<0.05). Oriental skylark preferred to shelter in these brush woods which were 10∼20 cm in height and of 3∼10 kinds of plants in summer; while in autumn they would prefer those which were below 20 cm in height and of 2∼12 kinds of plants. There was no significant difference about the proportion of individuals in different heights of brush woods in summer and autumn. Mann-Whitnly Z=0.218, P=0.827>0.05, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z=0.408, P=0.996>0.05. Finally, according to the aggregative behaviors and habitat selections of Oriental skylark, some special measures of bird protection were put forward at the airport.