Birds as indicators of urban biodiversity

Abstract

Urban areas affect the animals that inhabit them mainly by: very high density of people and buildings, anthropogenic food resources and higher average annual ambient temperature. Some species have begun to colonize cities, while others quite the contrary, on account of lack of natural convenient habitats avoid urban agglomerations. Animals are often used as an indicator of biodiversity. Especially birds, as ubiquitous animals, attracting attention with colorful feathering and singing, sensitive to environmental changes are very good indicator of biodiversity. Changes in their abundance and distribution inform us about quality of the entire natural environment. Trying to protect the biological diversity of animals, we must follow the changes that occur in the abundance and distribution of the species and the threats to which they are exposed colonizing the cities. Nowadays in Poland at least, 12 urban avifauna atlases and 2 non-atlas form monographs have been published. So far, none of the atlas of Polish cities and towns has been repeated, and the data contained in some dates back to the 1980s. The changes that took place at that time, significantly changed the situation of birds in the urban environment. The reason for the decline abundance are: limiting the number of breeding sites, removing their natural refuges by cutting shrubs and trees, noise barriers and construction works on the modernization of buildings. The big problem is also stray cats, which decimating a significant populations of birds. This article focuses on regional aspects of biodiversity in urban area on the example of avifauna. Protective efforts at regional scale can translate into the success of species richness in the global aspect.