Nesting Bird Communities of Urban Forest Parks Suffer from Recreational Load (on the Example of Kyiv, Ukraine)

Abstract

The urban environment has a complex effect on the forest diversity. Birds are a suitable object for diagnostic of ecosystem disturbances. The urban recreation load in forest parks was estimated using the author’s methodology according to the total points. To analyze the urban recreation load, we took the characteristics of the forest park and the surrounding landscapes, which are important for the birds’ life, the nesting result, and stable population maintenance: the share of urbanized territory; the share of the territory with unorganized recreation; forest park attendance; the presence of freely rambling pets. The number and distribution of birds were determined by registrations of birds along transects in May–June 2017–2018. 30–54 bird species nest in each forest park with an average density of 1.6 (SD: 0.4)–3.8 (SD: 0.9) pairs/ha.Parus majorL.,Fringilla coelebsL.,Turdus merulaL., sometimesSturnus vulgarisL.,Erithacus rubeculaL.,Turdus pilarisL. are dominant in communities. Urban recreation load leads to a change in the bird nesting strategy, the composition of their communities contributes to the extinction of non-synanthropized species, reduces the abundance of ground-nesters. This leads to a decrease in the number of their populations and some species impoverishment. The synanthropy index of nesting bird communities was 0.38–0.57. A positive correlation between the urban recreation load and the synanthropy index (0.75), Berger–Parker index (0.40), a relative abundance of hollow nesters (0.59), and a negative correlation with the abundance of ground nesters (−0.59) were revealed. To minimize the negative impact of the recreational load on bird communities, to preserve vulnerable species at nesting and maintain the species diversity of avifauna, it is necessary to create areas in forest parks protected from hiking, display in geducational advertising on the importance of preserving animals and their habitats.