Urban bird research in a global perspective

Abstract

More than half of the world's human population lives in cities in which birds constitute the major, or only, contact people have with wildlife. The vast amount of predicted urbanization in the coming years will, however, consume habitats and reduce the possibilities for birds to thrive in cities and thus also reduce people's potential to detect birds. The scientific literature is presently dominated by studies from Europe and North America although the largest occurring urbanization processes occur in South East Asia and Africa. Further, these understudied continents, together with South America, harbor some of the most important areas of urban bird biodiversity and are thus of special importance to study. The last 15 years of urban bird ecology research have been exponential and now enables amalgamations and reviews of research. Here, in this volume, we try to overview these present findings in urban bird research from all continents. We illustrate this by overviewing patterns and processes, spatial and temporal scales and methodological approaches, pollution effects on birds, bird's effects on human well-being, and how urban habitats are conserved and managed for birds. The patterns of how urban birds are affected by urbanization processes are similar globally, with decreasing habitats and change of habitat qualities and pollution effects. However, increasing number of areas for urban bird conservation are being recognized and habitats managed to provide urban bird populations are increasing. In a global perspective, cities do still provide habitats to allow a diverse bird fauna.