Effects of Landscape Features on Bird Community in Winter Urban Parks

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Accelerated urbanization has changed the composition of regional landscape patterns, directly affecting the composition of bird communities. This study aims to analyze the response of bird communities in urban parks in Fuzhou, China, to landscape features during winter. We selected nine urban parks in Fuzhou and investigated the distribution of their bird communities. We found that the bird community in Fuzhou is dominated by resident birds. Park area, perimeter length as well as the cover of woodland and grassland cover within the park increased with the distance from the city center. Our results showed that the park’s area, the irregularity of the park, woodland proportion, and waterbody shape have a positive effect on bird diversity. Our study is of great significance for future urban park planning and bird community diversity protection. ABSTRACT: Urban parks, as critical components of the urban green space, have practical significance in studying the influence of landscape characteristics on birds. Nine urban parks in Fuzhou, China, were used as study objects to explore the influence of landscape features (patch, landscape, and surrounding environment indices) on bird communities. The results showed that (1) from December 2021 to February 2022, we found a total of 2874 individuals belonging to 61 species of 9 orders, 32 families, which were dominated by the birds of Passeriformes (37 species of 24 families, accounting for 89.91% of the total number of individuals) and resident birds in Fuzhou urban parks (n = 30; 85.46%); (2) The park area, park perimeter, woodland area, grassland area, and the park shape index increased as the distance to the city center increases; (3) Bird diversity responds differently to different landscape features. The total abundance of birds, the abundance of winter migrant birds, and the richness of winter migrant birds increased with the park area. And the park shape index affects positively for the the α-diversity of birds and the abundance of resident birds. Woodland proportion and waterbody shape index affected positively on the richness and α-diversity of resident birds. To promote the diversity of regional birds, it is recommended that the construction and planning of urban parks should enlarge the park area as much as possible, increase the proportion of woodland, and make shorelines more irregular. Our study could serve as a reference for the construction of biodiversity enhancements in core green areas of urban parks.