Researchers tracked bird diversity in public parks and private backyards in twin cities in Illinois with significantly different development histories and green space management practices.
Researchers tracked bird diversity in public parks and private backyards in twin cities in Illinois with significantly different development histories and green space management practices. They found that birds rely on both public and private spaces in different seasons and for different reasons. The study linked park management practices aimed at conservation and restoration to increased bird diversity and the persistence of rarer species.
The new findings are reported in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.
The researchers took regular snapshots of the birds in 39 public parks and 41 private yards in Urbana and Champaign, adjacent cities in East Central Illinois.
“These cities are right next to each other, they’re touching each other, but they have very different histories,” said Henry Pollock, who led the research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Illinois natural resources and environmental sciences professor Carena Van Riper and former U. of I. evolution, ecology, and behavior professor Mark Hauber. Pollock is now the executive director of the Southern Plains Land Trust in Lamar, Colorado, and Hauber is the executive director of the Advanced Science Research Center at the City University of New York.
Read more at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Image: Researchers tracked bird abundance and diversity in parks and backyards in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana in summer and winter. They found that parks and backyards play complementary roles in supporting bird health and abundance. The researchers also tracked how park maintenance and preservation practices related to bird diversity. (Credit: Photos by USFWS and Zak Sutton)
