Small farmlands can serve as open habitat for birds in subtropical cities of southern China

Abstract

AbstractGreenspace or green cover is one of the major factors affecting urban avian diversity. In China, small farmlands producing vegetables are relatively common in cities. Although these farmlands could be a part of greenspaces, their habitat value for birds is rarely known. I investigated how these farmlands influenced winter bird community in two cities of southern China, using the multivariate latent variable model. I considered three green cover types: crop (mostly vegetables), weed (pioneer spontaneous vegetation), and wood (tree/shrub). I calculated the percentage of each green cover at local (50 m radius circular area) and landscape (500 m radius circular area) scales. Of 30 bird species, the abundance of 13 species decreased as crop cover decreased with increasing woody cover at the local scale, whereas the abundance of only two bird species increased with decreasing crop cover. Habitat preference of species mediated these responses, leading to a strong association between the open habit trait and the negative responses. Open habitat bird species richness was also negatively affected by decreasing local crop cover. Tree/shrub bird species richness showed a positive response to decreasing crop cover but the explanatory power of the local scale model was low. Variables at the landscape scale were rarely associated with species abundance or richness. These results suggest that small vegetable‐dominant farmlands can serve as open habitat for birds in urban areas where greenspace largely consists of tree/shrub vegetation. The results also indicate that urban bird diversity is more influenced by local habitat features than landscape‐scale features.