Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

How would size, age, human disturbance, and vegetation structure affect bird communities of urban parks in different seasons?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Ornithology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Parks are diversity hotspots in cities, and are generalized isolated “islands” in urban landscapes. However, there is a paucity of information on the avian community structure of urban parks in big cities in Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong which has more than 7 million people. This study therefore aimed to assess the influences of park attributes, human disturbance, and vegetation structure on species richness, diversity, total density, and species groups of breeding and wintering bird communities in Hong Kong. Bird communities of 30 parks were censused four times each season in 2010–2011 using point counting. Species richness and diversity were affected by park size in both seasons, and larger parks supported more species and higher diversity. In addition, species richness of wintering season was negatively affected by visitor rate. Total bird density increased with visitor rate, but only in the breeding season. Noise did not have significant impacts on species richness, diversity, and total density. Regarding the responses of species groups, number of resident species increased with park size in both seasons. Migrants, insectivores, and insectivore–frugivores were positively affected by park size, but negatively by visitor rate in the wintering season. However, omnivores in the breeding season increased with both park size and visitor rate. Granivores was the only feeding guild which was positively affected by noise and negatively by foliage height diversity in the wintering season. In conclusion, park size and visitor rate affected bird community structure, and different species groups had different responses to habitat factors in the two seasons.

Zusammenfassung

Wie beeinflussen Flächengröße, Alter der Anlage, Störungen durch Menschen und die Vegetationsstruktur Vogelgemeinschaften in städtischen Parks zu verschiedenen Jahreszeiten?

In Städten stellen Parks Diversitäts-Hotspots dar und bilden allgemein isolierte “Inseln” in der urbanen Landschaft. Allerdings gibt es nur wenige Informationen über die Struktur von Vogelgemeinschaften urbaner Parks in Großstädten Südostasiens, wie zum Beispiel Hongkong, wo mehr als sieben Millionen Menschen leben. Daher war das Ziel dieser Studie, den Einfluss der Parkeigenschaften sowie der Störungen durch Menschen und der Vegetationsstruktur auf Artenreichtum, Diversität, Gesamtvogeldichte und die einzelnen Vogelgilden bei Brutvögeln und Wintergästen in Hongkong zu untersuchen. Die Vogelgemeinschaften von 30 Parks wurden 2010–2011 zu jeder der beiden Jahreszeiten viermal mittels Punktzählung erfasst. Artenreichtum und Diversität wurden zu beiden Jahreszeiten durch die Parkgröße beeinflusst, und größere Parks beherbergten mehr Arten und eine höhere Diversität. Zusätzlich wirkte sich die Besucherzahl im Winter negativ auf den Artenreichtum aus. Die Gesamtvogeldichte nahm mit wachsender Besucherzahl zu, allerdings nur zur Brutzeit. Lärm hatte weder auf Artenreichtum, Diversität noch auf die Gesamtvogeldichte einen signifikanten Einfluss. Hinsichtlich der Reaktionen einzelner Vogelgruppen war festzustellen, dass die Anzahl vorkommender Vogelarten zu beiden Jahreszeiten mit der Parkgröße anstieg. Auf Zugvögel, Insektenfresser und Insekten-Fruchtfresser hatte die Parkgröße im Winter einen positiven Einfluss, die Besucherzahl dagegen einen negativen. Zur Brutzeit stieg der Anteil der Allesfresser jedoch sowohl mit der Parkgröße als auch mit der Besucherzahl an. Körnerfresser reagierten im Winter als einzige Nahrungsgilde positiv auf Lärm bzw. negativ auf das Belaubungsprofil. Dies lässt den Schluss zu, dass Parkgröße und Besucherzahl die Struktur von Vogelgemeinschaften beeinflussen und dass verschiedene Artengruppen zu den beiden Jahreszeiten unterschiedlich auf Habitatfaktoren reagieren.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aldrich JW, Coffin RW (1980) Breeding bird populations from forest to suburbia after thirty-seven years. Am Birds 34:3–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Arroyo-Solís A, Castillo JM, Figueroa ME (2009) Effects of habitat structure, landscape matrix and human disturbance on the distribution and abundance of breeding birds in urban parks in a Mediterranean city: Seville (Spain). Abstracts: 7th Conference of the European Ornithologists’ Union. Zurich, Swiss, pp 16–17

  • Bibby CJ, Burgess ND, Hill DA, Mustoe SH (2000) Bird census techniques, 2nd edn. Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair RB (1996) Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient. Ecol Appl 6:506–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell MON (2009) The impact of habitat characteristics on bird presence and the implications for wildlife management in the environs of Ottawa, Canada. Urban Urban Green 8:87–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbó-Ramírez P, Zuria I (2011) The value of small urban greenspaces for birds in a Mexican city. Landsc Urban Plan 100:213–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chace JF, Walsh JJ (2006) Urban effects on native avifauna: a review. Landsc Urban Plan 74:46–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlain DE, Cannon AR, Toms MP, Leech DI, Hatchwell BJ, Gaston KJ (2009) Avian productivity in urban landscapes: a review and meta-analysis. Ibis 151:1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colwell RK (2006) Estimates: statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples. Version 8.00. User’s guide and application. http://purl.oclc.org/estimates. Accessed 9 September 2011

  • Cornelis J, Hermy M (2004) Biodiversity relationships in urban and suburban parks in Flanders. Landsc Urban Plan 69:385–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle DM, Criner TL, Boren JC, Masters RE, Gregory MS (1999) Response of breeding birds in the Great Plains to low density urban sprawl. Gt Plains Res 9:55–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Estades CF (1997) Bird-habitat relationships in a vegetational gradient in the Andes of central Chile. Condor 99:719–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans KL, Newson SE, Gaston KJ (2009) Habitat influences on urban avian assemblages. Ibis 151:19–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans KL, Chamberlain DE, Hatchwell BJ, Gregory RD, Gaston KJ (2011) What makes an urban bird? Glob Change Biol 17:32–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Juricic E (2000) Bird community composition patterns in urban parks of Madrid: the role of age, size and isolation. Ecol Res 15:373–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Juricic E (2002) Can human disturbance promote nestedness? A case study with breeding birds in urban habitat fragments. Oecologia 131:269–278

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Juricic E (2004) Spatial and temporal analysis of the distribution of forest specialists in an urban-fragmented landscape (Madrid, Spain): implications for local and regional bird conservation. Landsc Urban Plan 69:17–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Juricic E, Jokimäki J (2001) A habitat island approach to conserving birds in urban landscapes: case studies from southern and northern Europe. Biodivers Conserv 10:2023–2043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontana CS, Burger MI, Magnusson WE (2011) Bird diversity in a subtropical South-American city: effects of noise levels, arborisation and human population density. Urban Ecosyst 14:341–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller RA, Warren PH, Armsworth PR, Barbosa O, Gaston KJ (2008) Garden bird feeding predicts the structure of urban avian assemblages. Divers Distrib 14:131–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herkert JR (1994) The effects of habitat fragmentation on midwestern grassland bird communities. Ecol Appl 4:461–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herrera-Montes MI, Aide TM (2011) Impacts of traffic noise on anuran and bird communities. Urban Ecosyst 14:415–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hohtola E (1978) Differential changes in bird community structure with urbanisation: a study in central Finland. Ornis Scand 9:94–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S (1989) Applied logistic regression. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Husté A, Selmi S, Boulinier T (2006) Bird communities in suburban patches near Paris: determinants of local richness in a highly fragmented landscape. Ecoscience 13:249–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutto RL, Pletschet SM, Hendricks P (1986) A fixed-radius point count method for nonbreeding and breeding season use. Auk 103:593–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imai H, Nakashizuka T (2010) Environmental factors affecting the composition and diversity of avian community in mid- to late breeding season in urban parks and green spaces. Landsc Urban Plan 96:183–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jokimäki J (1999) Occurrence of breeding bird species in urban parks: effects of park structure and broad-scale variables. Urban Ecosyst 3:21–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jokimäki J, Huhta E (2000) Artificial nest predation and abundance of birds along an urban gradient. Condor 102:838–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jokimäki J, Suhonen J, Inki K, Jokinen S (1996) Biogeographical comparison of winter bird assemblages in urban environments in Finland. J Biogeogr 23:379–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jokimäki J, Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki M-L, Sorace A, Fernández-Juricic E, Rodriguez-Prieto I, Jimenez MD (2005) Evaluation of the “safe nesting zone” hypothesis across an urban gradient: a multi-scale study. Ecography 28:59–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwok HK, Corlett RT (1999) Seasonality of a forest bird community in Hong Kong, South China. Ibis 141:70–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lock NY (2000) The ecology of urban birds in Hong Kong. Dissertation, University of Hong Kong

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1963) An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution 17:373–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donelly R (2001) Avian ecology and conservation in an urbanizing world. Kluwer, Norwell

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McKinney ML (2002) Urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation. Bioscience 52:883–890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melles S, Glenn S, Martin K (2003) Urban bird diversity and landscape complexity: species-environment associations along a multiscale habitat gradient. Conserv Ecol 7:5 (online). http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/art5. Accessed 9 September 2011

    Google Scholar 

  • Minor E, Urban D (2010) Forest bird communities across a gradient of urban development. Urban Ecosyst 13:51–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mörtberg UM (2001) Resident bird species in urban forest remnants; landscape and habitat perspectives. Landsc Ecol 16:193–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murgui E (2007) Factors influencing the bird community of urban wooded streets along an annual cycle. Ornis Fenn 84:66–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Natuhara Y, Imai C (1999) Prediction of species richness of breeding birds by landscape-level factors of urban woods in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Biodivers Conserv 8:239–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olden JD, Rooney TP (2006) On defining and quantifying biotic homogenization. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 15:113–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver AJ, Hong-Wa C, Devonshire J, Olea KR, Rivas GF, Gahl MK (2011) Avifauna richness enhanced in large, isolated urban parks. Landsc Urban Plan 102:215–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park CR, Lee WS (2000) Relationship between species composition and area in breeding birds of urban woods in Seoul, Korea. Landsc Urban Plan 51:29–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parody JM, Cuthbert FJ, Decker EH (2001) The effect of 50 years of landscape change on species richness and community composition. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 10:305–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rheindt FE (2003) The impact of roads on birds: does song frequency play a role in determining susceptibility to noise pollution? J Ornithol 144:295–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodewald AD, Yahner RH (2001) Influence of landscape composition on avian community structure and associated mechanisms. Ecology 82:3493–3504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon CE, Weaver W (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheng H, Ohtaishi N, Lu H (1999) The mammalian of China. China Forestry Publishing, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorace A, Gustin M (2008) Homogenisation processes and local effects on avifaunal composition in Italian towns. Acta Oecol 33:15–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statsoft (2007) STATISTICA, version 8.0. StatSoft, Tulsa, Oklahoma

  • Stratford JA, Robinson WD (2005) Distribution of neotropical migratory bird species across an urbanizing landscape. Urban Ecosyst 8:59–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suarez-Rubio M, Thomlinson JR (2009) Landscape and patch-level factors influence bird communities in an urbanized tropical island. Biol Conserv 142:1311–1321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suarez-Rubio M, Leimgruber P, Renner S (2010) Influence of exurban development on bird species richness and diversity. J Ornithol 152:461–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suhonen J, Jokimäki J (1988) A biogeographical comparison of the breeding bird species assemblages in twenty Finnish urban parks. Ornis Fenn 65:76–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Takenaka A (2009) CanopOn 2 hemispherical photograph analysis program. http://takenaka-akio.cool.ne.jp/etc/canopon2/. Accessed 30 November 2011

  • The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society Ltd (2009) A photographic guide to the birds of Hong Kong. Wan Li, Hong Kong

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilghman NG (1987) Characteristics of urban woodlands affecting winter bird diversity and abundance. For Ecol Manag 21:163–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vuorisalo T, Andersson H, Hugg T, Lahtinen R, Laaksonen H, Lehikoinen E (2003) Urban development from an avian perspective: causes of hooded crow (Corvus corone cornix) urbanisation in two Finnish cities. Landsc Urban Plan 62:69–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams CB (1943) Area and number of species. Nature 152:264–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu PY, Lin SY, Jiang GD, Lou JJ (1988) Colour guide to the birds of Guangdong. South China Endangered Faunas Research Centre, Guangdong (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wunderle JM Jr (1999) Avian distribution in Dominican shade coffee plantations: area and habitat relationships. J Field Ornithol 70:58–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamaura Y, Kazuhiro K, Fujita G, Higuchi H (2005) The effect of landscape contexts on wintering bird communities in rural Japan. For Ecol Manag 216:187–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu M, Xu J, Jiang N, Li J, Fan Y (2006) Impacts of road corridors on urban landscape pattern: a gradient analysis with changing grain size in Shanghai, China. Landsc Ecol 21:723–734

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We deeply thank Ben Yeung, Hao Zhang and Klinsmann Cheung who helped in experimental design and data collection. We also thank Dr Jukka Jokimäki, the other anonymous reviewer and editors of Journal of Ornithology for their invaluable comments on this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Rm. E401, East Block, Science Center, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong, China

    Daqing Zhou

  2. School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Rm. E407, East Block, Science Center, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong, China

    L. M. Chu

Authors
  1. Daqing Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. L. M. Chu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. M. Chu.

Additional information

Communicated by T. Gottschalk.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 7.

Table 7 Bird species observed in the 30 urban parks in Hong Kong in 2010–2011, and their classification into each species group with respect to seasonal status and food type
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zhou, D., Chu, L.M. How would size, age, human disturbance, and vegetation structure affect bird communities of urban parks in different seasons?. J Ornithol 153, 1101–1112 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0839-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0839-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation