Abstract: An investigation was conducted on the community structure and diversity of reproductive birds in Luqu County, Gansu Province in May and June from 2016 to 2019 using line transects. There were 125 species belonging to 38 families and 15 orders of all the recorded birds including 56 resident species, 51 summer visitors, 14 species of migrants and 4 species of winter visitors. Among them, 3 species of birds are under the first-grade state protection and 6 species of birds are under the second-grade state protection. According to the zoogeographic fauna of China, the avian distribution pattern of breeding birds in Luqu County is mainly composed of Palaearctic birds, but there were also Oriental birds. The distribution patterns that included more species were the Palaearctic type (23 species), Himalaya-Hengduan Mountain type (18 species), widespread species (13 species), Holarctic type (17 species), Highland type (12 species) and Oriental species (10 species). This result is related to Luqu's location on the transitional zone between the Oriental and Palaearctic realms, which also reflects the faunal characteristics of Luqu belonging to the Qinghai-South Tibet subregion of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, Palaearctic realm. Among the different communities, the number of species was the highest in meadows (71 species) and forests (61 species), whereas the river habitats had the lowest number of species (39 species). The highest Shannon-Wiener diversity index was found in forests followed by lakes and shrubs. Additionally, the highest Simpson diversity index was observed in lakes, followed by forests and shrubs. The G-F index show that birds in the entire survey area had a high diversity at the family or genus level from 2016 to 2019. To protect the bird diversity of Luqu County, stronger protection is needed for the Gahai Lake wetland ecosystem and Zecha forest ecosystem.

Key words: Gahai-Zecha national nature reserve, bird diversity, community structure, avifauna