Abstract
Due to loss and fragmentation of natural forest habitats, wildlife in many regions now depend heavily on networks of forests preserved as parkland and open space. In this research, capture and observation methods were used to analyze the avifauna of a small, isolated forest preserved as suburban parkland on the outskirts of Tokyo. The research was implemented at Asaka City, in Saitama Prefecture (Fig. 1), just north of Tokyo, from May 2001 to February 2002. The research site was a small secondary forest of oak and hornbeam, located on a 15 degree slope facing eastwards, and isolated among vegetable fields and housing development (Fig. 2). Capture and banding research using three mist nets set inside the forest (Fig. 3) was implemented on a total of 8 days. In addition, birds were identified by sight and sound while walking along the park pathways at a pace of 2km/hr. The results are presented in Table1. A total of 13 species were identified by capture method, and 18 by observation. The total number of species identified was 18. Of these, two species were recorded only by capture, and seven only by observation. In addition, several other species were recorded more frequently using one method than using the other. These results indicate that these two methods tend to complement one another, and can effectively be used in combination. In addition, the number of birds recorded tended to increase throughout the morning hours, then level out in the afternoon (Fig. 5-1, 5-2). This indicates that conducting research from dawn until about 1200 or 1300 hrs is sufficient.
