Bird community changes across gradient of habitat quality in the urban green open space

Abstract

Bird species can be found in almost all habitat types, including urban area. The objective of this research was to investigate the changes in bird community in different habitat quality gradients of urban green open spaces and provide suggestions for indicator species. Five urban green open spaces were selected as study sites, representing gradient from low to high habitat quality: Gunung Gadung cemetery (21 bird sp.), Sentul City (34 sp.), Bogor Botanical Garden (48 sp.), Darmaga Campus (52 sp.), and Darmaga Experimental Forest (35 sp.). Species richness and Jaccard similarity indices were analyzed to discover the pattern reflecting the quality of urban habitat. Bird community in all study sites had low to medium similarity (0.33-0.51), indicating that each site had a distinct bird community. Bird richness was highest in the mid-quality habitat (garden-tree mix), but decreased in the high quality (urban mature forest). Bird that can be used for habitat indicators were babbler (low-medium quality); bulbul, pigeon, flycatchers (medium-quality); pied triller and cuckoo (medium-high quality), and barbet and nuthatch (high quality). Similar research needs to be conducted in other urban areas to reconfirm this pattern, in order to use bird community as an indicator of urban habitat quality.