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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically altered human activities, potentially relieving human pressures on urban-dwelling animals. Here, we evaluated whether birds from five cities in five countries (Czech Republic - Prague, Finland - Rovaniemi, Hungary - Budapest, Poland - Poznan, and Australia - Melbourne) changed their tolerance towards human presence (measured as flight initiation distance) during the COVID-19 shutdowns. We collected 6369 flight initiation distance estimates for 147 bird species and found that birds tolerated approaching humans to a similar level before and during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Moreover, during the shutdowns, bird escape behaviour did not consistently change with the level of governmental restrictions (measured as the stringency index). Hence, our results indicate that birds do not flexibly and quickly adjust their escape behaviour to the reduced human presence; in other words, the breeding populations of urban birds examined might already be tolerant of human activity and perceive humans as relatively harmless.

Most ecological studies use remote sensing to analyze broad-scale biodiversity patterns, focusing mainly on taxonomic diversity in natural landscapes. One of the most important effects of high levels of urbanization is species loss (i.e., biotic homogenization). Therefore, cost-effective and more efficient methods to monitor biological communities' distribution are essential. This study explores whether the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Normalized Difference

Understanding habitat and spatial overlap in sympatric species of urban areas would aid in predicting species and community modifications in response to global change. Habitat overlap has been widely investigated for specialist species but neglected for generalists living in urban settings. Many corvid species are generalists and are adapted to urban areas. This work aimed to determine the urban habitat requirements and spatial overlap of five corvid species in sixteen European cities during the breeding season. All five studied corvid species had high overlap in their habitat selection while still having particular tendencies. We found three species, the Carrion/Hooded Crow, Rook, and Eurasian Magpie, selected open habitats. The Western Jackdaw avoided areas with bare soil cover, and the Eurasian Jay chose more forested areas. The species with similar habitat selection also had congruent spatial distributions. Our results indicate that although the corvids had some tendencies regarding habitat selection, as generalists, they still tolerated a wide range of urban habitats, which resulted in high overlap in their habitat niches and spatial distributions.

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