A long term survey of the avifauna in an urban park

Abstract

Eight censuses of the breeding bird community in a 10 ha urban park in Dortmund, Germany, conducted over a time span of 43 years, revealed an increase in species number as well as in breeding density (territories/10 ha). We found a high species turnover rate of 42 % favouring generalist species and perhaps woodland species. Indicator species according to Flade (1994) are discussed. The ratio of the number of Blackbird Turdus merula territories to the number of Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs territories is used to describe the progress of urbanisation in breeding bird communities. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.