Abstract
Our study assessed the diversity of avifauna and the anthropogenic pressure in the Ciric Valley, located on the outskirts of Iași, which contains a mosaic of habitats, including deciduous forest, wetlands, and meadows. We used two ornithological methods: observation along the transect combined with fixed-point observation. The study area was divided into two large territories, depending on habitat characteristics: the Dorobanț and Aroneanu reservoirs, which shelter a diversity of 71 species, and the Ciric reservoir complex, where we observed 79 species of birds. The Shannon and Simpson indices, calculated to determine alpha diversity, show that the forest, along the three lakes it surrounds, has a greater variety of birds than the lakes in the rural area, reaching a value of 3.5. In both areas, most species are summer visitors and sedentary (Ciric) or passage species (Dorobanț-Aroneanu). Although the recorded anthropogenic pressure was high, a large percentage of the recorded species were breeding in the area, with 62.02% of the species inside the forest area and 56.34% in the perimeter of the Aroneanu reservoir. We noticed the presence of eight endangered or vulnerable species at each location, according to the Red Book of Vertebrates in Romania, and 32 bird species, respectively 30 bird species, included in Annexes 1 and 2 of the Birds Directive.