Species richness and ecological structure of bird assemblages in urban areas in Belarus

Authors

  • Vital V. Sakhvon Belarusian State University, Niezaliežnasci Avenue, 4, 220030, Minsk, Belarus

Keywords:

avifauna, bird assemblages, species richness, synurbization, urban, Belarus

Abstract

In this paper was analysed the bird species richness, status some species and ecological structure of breeding bird assemblages in urban areas in Belarus. The data were collected in 2009–2017 in many towns and cities of Belarus. Total 205 species (62.1 % of all avifauna in Belarus) were registered in urban areas. The breeding was confirmed for 140 species (68.2 %), 38.6 % of species of breeding bird assemblages prefers the different type of forests. The almost half of all breeding bird species (45.7 %) nests on young trees and bushes, and on the ground also. Species feeding on invertebrates and seeds or only invertebrates are 34.3 and 32.1 % respectively. The synurbic species (27) in Belarus was determined. Our results indicate that some of them (Mallard, Eurasian magpie, Hooded Crow, Woodpigeon) have been formed the stable synurbiс populations in some Belarusian cities.

Author Biography

  • Vital V. Sakhvon, Belarusian State University, Niezaliežnasci Avenue, 4, 220030, Minsk, Belarus

    PhD (biology), docent; associate professor at the department of zoology, faculty of biology

References

  1. McIntyre N. E., Knowles-Yánez K., Hope D. Urban ecology as an interdisciplinary field: differences in the use of «urban» between the social and natural sciences. In: Urban ecology: an international perspective on the interaction between humans and nature. New York : Springer-Verlag, 2008. P. 49 – 65. DOI: 10.1023/A:100954001.
  2. Aronson M. F. J., La Sorte F. A., Nilon C. H., et al. A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers. Proc. R. Soc. B : Biol. Sci. 2014. Vol. 281, issue 1780. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3330.
  3. Shochat E. Credit or debit? Resource input changes population dynamics of city-slicker birds. Oikos. 2004. Vol. 106, issue 3. P. 622– 626. DOI: 10.1111/j.0030-1299.2004.13159.x.
  4. Shochat E., Warren P. S., Faeth S. H., et al. From patterns to emerging processes in mechanistic urban ecology. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2006. Vol. 21, issue 4. P. 186 –191. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.11.019.
  5. Ul’yanova V. V. [Avifauna of Minsk and its distribution]. Vesti Acad. Nauk BSSR. 1979. No. 4. P. 110 –114 (in Russ.).
  6. Haiduk V. E., Abramova I. V. [Seasonal and annual dynamics of avifauna in Brest]. Vestnik Brest. State Univ. named after A. S. Pushkin. 1999. No. 2. P. 66 –76 (in Russ.).
  7. Kusenkov A. N. [Seasonal variations of bird densities in Gomel]. Vesti Acad. Nauk BSSR. 1990. No. 6. P. 103–105 (in Russ.).
  8. Nikiforov M. E., Kozulin A. V., Gritchik V. V., et al. [Birds of Belarus on the line of XXI century: status, number, distribution]. Minsk : N. A. Korolev, 1997 (in Russ.).
  9. Gritchik V. V., Burko L. D. [Animals of Belarus]. Minsk : BSU, 2013 (in Russ.).
  10. Sakhvon V. V. [Birds synurbization in Belarus: Which species settle urban areas?]. Aktualʼnye problemy zoologicheskoi nauki : collect. pap. of the XI Int. zool. сonf. (Minsk, 1–3 Novemb., 2017). Minsk, 2017. P. 373–381 (in Russ.).
  11. Yurko V. V., Gritchik V. V. Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) as new breeding species in Belarus. Subbuteo. The Belarus. ornithol. bull. 1999. Vol. 2, issue 1. P. 39 – 41 (in Russ.).
  12. Nikiforov M. E. Belarusian ornito-faunistic commission: new bird species records in 1990 –1999. Subbuteo. The Belarus. ornithol. bull. 2001. Vol. 4, issue 1. P. 25– 40 (in Russ.).
  13. Nikiforov M. E., Samusenko I. E. Belarusian ornito-faunistic commission: new bird species records. Subbuteo. The Belarus. ornithol. bull. 2002. Vol. 5, issue 1. P. 57– 62 (in Russ.).
  14. Nikiforov M. E., Samusenko I. E. Belarusian ornito-faunistic commission: new bird species records. Subbuteo. The Belarus. ornithol. bull. 2003. Vol. 6. P. 51– 61 (in Russ.).
  15. Brogger-Jensen S., Fenchuk V. A. Registration of the Short-toed treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla) in Brest, Belarus. Subbuteo. The Belarus. ornithol. bull. 2004. Vol. 7. P. 45– 46 (in Russ.).
  16. Haiduk V. V., Abramova I. V. [Ecology of birds in south-western Belarus. Non-Passeriformes]. Brest : Brest. state univ. named after A. S. Pushkin, 2009 (in Russ.).
  17. Haiduk V. V., Abramova I. V. [Ecology of birds in south-western Belarus. Passeriformes]. Brest : Brest. state univ. named after A. S. Pushkin, 2013 (in Russ.).
  18. Fischer J. D., Schneider S. C., Ahlers A. A., et al. Categorizing wildlife responses to urbanization and conservation implications of terminology. Conserv. Biol. 2015. Vol. 29, issue 4. P. 1246 –1248. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12451.
  19. Melles S., Glenn S., Martin K. Urban bird diversity and landscape complexity: species-environment associations along a multi- scale gradient. Conserv. Ecol. 2003. Vol. 7, issue 1. DOI: 10.5751/ES-00478-070105.

Downloads

Published

2018-05-03

Issue

No. 1 (2018): Journal of the Belarusian State University. Biology

Section

Zoology and Botany

License

The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  2. The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
  3. The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)

How to Cite

Sakhvon, V. V. (2018). Species richness and ecological structure of bird assemblages in urban areas in Belarus. Experimental Biology and Biotechnology, 1, 95-102. https://journals.bsu.by/index.php/biology/article/view/2491