0000000001046346
AUTHOR
Kimmo Inki
Biogeographical comparison of winter bird assemblages in urban environments in Finland
We studied biogeographical variation of urban bird assemblages in Finland. Winter birds were censused by single-visit study plot method from thirty-one centres of villages or towns along 950 km latitudinal extent. A total twenty-eight bird species was observed and the average density was 61.2 ind./10 ha. The number of dominant species in study areas varied between two and seven and their proportion of the whole assemblage was over 70%. Species richness, but not the density of birds, decreased northwards in pooled data. Higher species richness in south than in north was mainly due to the higher amount of delayed migratory birds (e.g. waterbirds, finches) and southerly distributed bird specie…
Urbanization and stability of a bird community in winter
Abstract: The main objective of this study was to analyze between-winter stability of bird communities along latitudinal (950 km) and urban gradients (from small village to towns) in Finland. Birds were surveyed at the same 30-ha study plots using the same methods in 31 villages and town centres in the winters of 1991–1992 and 1999–2000. Species richness did not differ between the 2 study winters, but variation in total abundance of birds increased with increasing urbanization. However, urbanization reduced variation in wintering bird community structure. Species richness, density of wintering birds, and dissimilarity of wintering bird communities did not vary with latitude. According to ou…