Breeding in a noisy world: Attraction to urban arterial roads and preference for nest-sites by the scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata)

Abstract

With increasing urbanization, the availability of natural habitats for other animals has declined, thus forcing them to adapt to urban environments to survive. To understand the adaptation of birds to urban environments, we investigated the nest-site selection characteristics of the scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata) along an arterial road in Changjiang County, tropical Hainan, China. The number of scaly-breasted munia nests recorded in 2016 and 2018 were 584 and 810, respectively, with 221 nests were newly established in 2018. An analysis of the nest-site selection parameters of the scaly-breasted munia revealed that 98.3% nested in trees along the arterial road, which has a relatively high traffic volume, and 94.7% of the nests were found in the upper–middle crown of densely foliated fig trees (Ficus altissima) along both sides of the arterial road, with 82.5 ± 22.4% coverage above the nests. Nested trees had significantly larger trunk circumferences 1.3 m above ground level compared with adjacent trees, and the distance from the nest to the nearest road was shorter than to the nearest building. The nesting of scaly-breasted munias in trees lining an arterial road may be an anti-predation strategy, in which trees with denser coverage and less fruit in high-traffic areas are preferentially used for nesting. We suggest that the adaptation of the scaly-breasted munia to urban environments is manifested through the exploitation of traffic volume and densely foliated tree species with less fruit for protection from predation.