Bird Diversity Patterns along Urbanization Gradients: Some Recommendations for Landscape Planner

Birds in an urban area often being used to indicate the quality of the city. The objective of this study was to analyze the response of birds to different intensities of urban-rural change. The high variation of house size and arrangement within housing clusters in the residential area of Sentul City (Bogor, West Java) was used as a model to mimic urbanization gradients in a city landscape. Five housing clusters were selected to represent the degree of urbanization gradients. Build to unbuild land ratio and density of mature trees were used to designate urbanization gradients in the chosen observation sites. Birds were observed using a standard point count method. Bird diversity was the highest in low urbanization (33 species) and diminishing in the higher urbanization grades (15 species). Sites with the highest urbanization rate still able to function as bird habitat, although the species number was low. The persistent bird species against urban-rural were mostly insectivores, nectarivores, and granivores (seed-eaters), while species that we’re unable to cope with urbanization were generally raptors, bush dependent species (e.g. babbler group) and thick canopy dependent species (e.g. green pigeon). The results indicate that (i) there is a negative relationship between degree of urbanization and bird species persistence in urban areas; (ii) efforts for bird conservation should not only focus on regreening but also be directed toward plant functional diversity to accommodate more diverse birds; (iii) urban landscape planner should consider maintaining or creating patch(es) of semi-nature areas as a refuge habitat for birds and other city-persistent species.