How do urban parks provide bird habitats and birdwatching service? Evidence from Beijing, China

Abstract

Parks are an important green infrastructure. Besides other benefits for human and animals, parks provide important bird habitats and accommodate most human-bird interactions in cities. Understanding the complex dynamics among park characteristics, bird habitats and park attractiveness to birdwatchers will inform park designers and managers. However, previous studies often examined factors influencing bird habitats and birdwatching activities separately. To fill this gap, we aim to study the whole picture of “parks, birds and birdwatchers” in Beijing, China for its spatial patterns and possible factors which influence bird habitat areas and birdwatching services. We conducted a three-month bird census in at 159 sites and mapped bird habitat areas in parks of Beijing through the maximum entropy method based on results of the bird survey as well as high-resolution remote sensing data. We derived the number of birdwatching records to describe birdwatching activities from the China Birdwatching Record Center website. We used correlation analysis, regression and analysis of variance to investigate factors that may influence areas of bird habitats and the number of birdwatching records for each park. Our results showed that among the 102 parks, 61 provide habitats to breeding birds with an average of 17 ha, and 26 parks generated a total of 330 birdwatching records. Park size, age, proportion of pavement, landscape connectedness, pavement largest patch index and woodland patch density explained 95% of the variation in habitat areas altogether. Bird habitat area alone explained 65% of the variation in the number of birdwatching records. Furthermore, parks with birdwatching records are significantly larger, older, closer to the city center and more accessible than those have no reported birdwatching. These findings have important implications for park management. While park size or age cannot be easily changed, modifying landscape patterns can increase bird habitats in parks, and improving accessibility may attract more birdwatchers to parks that already have considerable bird habitats.