The composition of British bird communities is associated with long-term garden bird feeding

Kate E Plummer,Mike P Toms,Kate Risely,Gavin M Siriwardena

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10111-5

Kate E Plummer, Mike P Toms + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10111-5

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Abstract

There is a multi-billion dollar global industry dedicated to feeding wild birds in residential gardens. This extraordinary boost to food resources is almost certainly reshaping entire bird communities, yet the large-scale, long-term impacts on community ecology remain unknown. Here we reveal a 40-year transformation of the bird communities using garden bird feeders in Britain, and provide evidence to suggest how this may have contributed to national-scale population changes. We find that increases in bird diversity at feeders are associated with increasing community evenness, as species previously rarely observed in gardens have increasingly exploited the growing variety of foods on offer over time. Urban areas of Britain are consequently nurturing growing populations of feeder-using bird species, while the populations of species that do not use feeders remain unchanged. Our findings illustrate the on-going, gross impact people can have on bird community structure across large spatial scales.

Highlights

There is a multi-billion dollar global industry dedicated to feeding wild birds in residential gardens
Using data extracted over a 40-year time series, we demonstrate that, over time, food resources provided by the British public have altered the composition of bird communities utilising garden bird feeders and, have helped to shape the national populations of birds in Britain today
Interestingly, when we included all of these potential drivers as covariates in the modelling of bird community temporal trends, we found that the number of feeders provided in a garden had a greater influence on species richness and diversity than either winter temperature or local habitat (Supplementary Fig. 4)

Summary

Introduction

There is a multi-billion dollar global industry dedicated to feeding wild birds in residential gardens. We analysed the long-term trends in community composition, nationally (using a single, rarefied time-series) and within individual gardens (using mixed effects modelling), to examine evidence of bird community adaptation in response to evolving feeding practices (see Methods section).

Results

Conclusion