Diversity of Bird Species in Urban Green Spaces of Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines

Abstract

The value of urban green spaces as important habitats for the maintenance of diverse wildlife species is not well explored in the Philippines. Data on bird diversity in urban areas like Davao City is very scant. Thus, the study documented bird species diversity in 15 urban green spaces of Davao City. These areas were previously not surveyed based on published literature. This study is also the first attempt to determine the correlation between green space size and Shannon diversity values. Green spaces were pre-selected, and bird censuses following a zigzag walk across each green space were conducted from October–December 2019. Coordinates of surveyed areas plotted on a digital map were used to estimate green space size. Diversity values were calculated using Shannon and Simpson indices. Pearson r correlation was employed to calculate the correlation between green space size and Shannon diversity values. Fifty-three (53) species (32 families) were accounted for, with 28 species added to the current list of birds from Davao City’s urban green spaces. Endemism was relatively low across all sites (17%). Only four species were common in all sites – namely, Passer montanus, Lanius cristatus, Cinnyris jugularis, and Pycnonotus goiavier. Shannon diversity values varied across sites (highest H' = 3.128, lowest H' = 1.688) and showed a positive correlation (r = 0.54) with green space size. Despite positive correlation, larger green spaces do not necessarily have the highest Shannon diversity values, suggesting that bird diversity in urban green spaces may be influenced by other factors. This warrants verification in the future to include studies on green space vegetation and complexity, noise level, and impact of anthropogenic activities.

Avifaunal diversity in urban greenspaces within Cotabato city, Mindanao Island, Philippines

“…Three of the four (75%) endemic species were documented only in NDU while one species-Rhipidura nigritorquis was recorded in PC Hill and NDU. The observed low endemism of avifauna in the present survey conforms with previous avifaunal surveys in urban green spaces in the Philippines (Banzon et al 2022;de Vera et al 2023). The vegetation type may play a factor in the low number of endemic birds in urban green spaces (Tanalgo et al 2015(Tanalgo et al , 2019.…”

“…In terms of frequency, the Aplonis panayensis (n = 120) and Passer montanus (n = 106) were commonly encountered among the species accounted for in the urban green spaces surveyed. These findings are also similar to the observations of Banzon et al (2022) in Davao City and Aida et al (2016) in urban landscapes of Malaysia. The abundance of Aplonis panayensis in urban areas was attributed to its ability to utilize available food resources (Shazali et al 2016).…”

“…Urban green spaces are locally fragmented and patchy vegetation areas within the city (Li et al 2019) that provide habitats for different fauna, especially birds (Leveau et al 2019). These areas come in various forms, including lakes, parks (Sulaiman et al 2013;Yang et al 2020), gardens (Parker et al 2013), school campus vicinity (Ong et al 1999;Vallejo & Aloy 2014), and hills (Jha 2019;Banzon et al 2022). Moreover, urban green spaces provide ecosystem services ranging from regulating services (e.g., erosion control) to sociocultural services (e.g., recreation) (Sultana & Selim 2021).…”

“…Among all wildlife fauna, birds directly benefit from urban green spaces (Muhlbauer et al 2021;Prihandi & Nurvianto 2022). There are studies done in the Philippines documenting the presence of birds in various urban green spaces (Vallejo & Alloy 2014;Banzon et al 2022). However, these studies were limited and data can be considered as not encompassing since it covers only limited areas in the country.…”