Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: With regard to their high adaptability to human settlements and global distribution, corvid birds (crows, ravens, jays, etc.) are good models to understand the impacts of urbanization on wildlife. Here, we qualitatively reviewed the impacts of urbanization on corvids. At least 30 corvid species have become successfully accustomed or adapted to urbanized environments. The majority (72%, a total of 424 articles) of the studies reported positive effects of urbanization on corvids. The availability of easily accessible food and artificial nesting sites, coupled with low levels of predation, were found as the most important factors benefitting corvids in cities around the world. Studied topics ranged from population size and density, breeding biology and nesting site selection to control and management of Corvidae in cities. Despite biases in the distribution of the reviewed papers, our review attests that corvids have demonstrated high levels of adaptability to urban environments across space and time. ABSTRACT: Urbanization is one of the most prevalent drivers of biodiversity loss, yet few taxonomic groups are remarkably successful at adapting to urban environments. We systematically surveyed the global literature on the effects of urbanization on species of family Corvidae (crows, choughs, jackdaws, jays, magpies, nutcrackers, ravens, rooks, treepies) to assess the occurrence of corvids in urban environments and the factors affecting their success. We found a total of 424 primary research articles, and the number of articles has increased exponentially since the 1970s. Most studies were carried out in cities of Europe and North America (45.5% and 31.4%, respectively) and were directed on a single species (75.2). We found that 30 corvid species (23% of 133 total) regularly occur in urban environments. The majority (72%) of the studies reported positive effects of urbanization on corvids, with 85% of studies detecting population increases and 64% of studies detecting higher breeding success with urbanization. Of the factors proposed to explain corvids’ success (availability of nesting sites and food sources, low predation and persecution), food availability coupled with diet shifts emerged as the most important factors promoting Corvidae to live in urban settings. The breeding of corvids in urban environments was further associated with earlier nesting, similar or larger clutches, lower hatching but higher fledging success, reduced home range size and limited territoriality, increased tolerance towards humans and increasing frequency of conflicts with humans. Despite geographic and taxonomic biases in our literature sample, our review indicates that corvids show both flexibility in resource use and behavioral plasticity that enable them to exploit novel resources for nesting and feeding. Corvids can thus be urban exploiters of the large-scale modifications of ecosystems caused by urbanization.