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. 2015 Oct;22(19):15097-103.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-015-4723-0. Epub 2015 May 24.

Urban and rural habitats differ in number and type of bird feeders and in bird species consuming supplementary food

Piotr Tryjanowski  1 , Piotr Skórka  2 , Tim H Sparks  3 , Waldemar Biaduń  4 , Tomasz Brauze  5 , Tomasz Hetmański  6 , Rafał Martyka  3 , Piotr Indykiewicz  7 , Łukasz Myczko  3 , Przemysław Kunysz  8 , Piotr Kawa  3 , Stanisław Czyż  9 , Paweł Czechowski  10 , Michał Polakowski  11 , Piotr Zduniak  12 , Leszek Jerzak  13 , Tomasz Janiszewski  14 , Artur Goławski  15 , Leszek Duduś  16 , Jacek J Nowakowski  17 , Andrzej Wuczyński  16 , Dariusz Wysocki  18
Affiliations

Urban and rural habitats differ in number and type of bird feeders and in bird species consuming supplementary food

Piotr Tryjanowski et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

Bird feeding is one of the most widespread direct interactions between man and nature, and this has important social and environmental consequences. However, this activity can differ between rural and urban habitats, due to inter alia habitat structure, human behaviour and the composition of wintering bird communities. We counted birds in 156 squares (0.25 km(2) each) in December 2012 and again in January 2013 in locations in and around 26 towns and cities across Poland (in each urban area, we surveyed 3 squares and also 3 squares in nearby rural areas). At each count, we noted the number of bird feeders, the number of bird feeders with food, the type of feeders, additional food supplies potentially available for birds (bread offered by people, bins) and finally the birds themselves. In winter, urban and rural areas differ in the availability of food offered intentionally and unintentionally to birds by humans. Both types of food availability are higher in urban areas. Our findings suggest that different types of bird feeder support only those species specialized for that particular food type and this relationship is similar in urban and rural areas.

Keywords: Central Europe; Human support; Human-wildlife interaction; Supplemental food; Urban ecosystems; Urbanization; Wintering.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of the following bird feeder categories: 1 typical bird table feeders with a roof; 2 automatic-type feeder providing mixed seeds; 3 waste human food, such as bread and boiled vegetables on the ground; 4 seeds, mainly wheat and sunflower, placed on the ground; 5 pig fat mixed with some seeds and prepared as a ball (authors of the pictures: S. Czyż, A. Graclik, M. Dobrzyńska and M. Stawowy)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of types of bird feeder expressed as numbers (n) in rural (r) and urban (u) areas. 1 Typical roofed bird tables, 2 automatic seed feeder, 3 waste food, 4 seeds on the ground, 5 animal fat. For more details, see the “Methods” section
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Principal component biplot showing the relationships between the 17 most common bird species (see Online Resource 1 for the species abbreviations) with combinations of rural (r) and urban (u) areas and bird feeders: 1 typical roofed bird tables, 2 automatic seed feeder, 3 waste food, 4 seeds on the ground, 5 animal fat, c control points provided in both habitat types
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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