Species Diversity and Abundance of Birds in the Coastal Land Use Areas, Bang Kaew Sub-District, Muang District, Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand

Bang Kaew Sub-district located in the smallest province in central region of Thailand that consists of an area of 416.7 km². It lies along the gulf of Thailand. There are natural mangrove forest, planted mangrove forest and other areas used by local people for salt field, fish pond and shrimp pond. They are not only useful for local people but also useful for many kinds of birds foraging in the areas. The objectives of this research were to study species diversity, abundance, feeding behavior, status, group of migratory birds and threaten status in the research area. The data was carried out by using Line Transect Method and field survey species diversity and abundance of birds which foraged in salt field, fish pond and shrimp pond in Bang Kaew sub-district, Muang District, Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand from August 2014–July 2015. The data were analyzed to find out abundance of birds. The results found that 8 orders, 15 families and 47 bird species were found in three land use areas of coastal land. 7 orders, 14 families and 41 bird species were found in salt field. 8 orders, 15 families and 32 bird species were found in fish pond. 7 orders, 14 families and 39 bird species were found in shrimp pond. According to bird abundance, 5 bird species were in level 5 of bird abundance. It was 10.64% of all bird species. According feeding behaviors, there were 19 piscivorous birds, 21 aquatic, benthic invertebrate feeding birds, 3 insectivorous birds, 2 granivorous birds, 1 omnivorous bird and 1 carnivorous bird. According to bird status, there were 12 resident birds, 7 resident and migratory birds and 28 migratory birds. According to the group of migratory birds, there were 20 shore birds, 3 terrestrial birds, 4 sea birds and 1 predator bird. According to Global Threaten Status, Painted Stork, Red-necked Stint, Eastern Black-tailed, Bar-tailed Godwit, Eurasian Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper and Grey-tailed Tattle were near-threatened (NT). So the communities should give their hands to conserve the coastal land use areas and biodiversity continuously because the birds are indicators of natural balance and plenty of food in local ecosystem.