The Corvids Literature Database—500 years of ornithological research from a crow’s perspective

Droege, Gabriele; Töpfer, Till

doi:10.1093/database/bav122

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…In addition, we later searched the Corvids Literature Database [ 32 ], (search date: 17 October 2020) to check if our Web of Science and Scopus search missed any relevant publications. When using the Corvids Literature Database, we used the advanced search tools built in this database.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review

Benmazouz

Jokimäki

Lengyel

et al. 2021

Animals

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Urbanization is one of the most prevalent drivers of biodiversity loss, yet few taxonomic groups are remarkably successful at adapting to urban environments. We systematically surveyed the global literature on the effects of urbanization on species of family Corvidae (crows, choughs, jackdaws, jays, magpies, nutcrackers, ravens, rooks, treepies) to assess the occurrence of corvids in urban environments and the factors affecting their success. We found a total of 424 primary research articles, and the number of articles has increased exponentially since the 1970s. Most studies were carried out in cities of Europe and North America (45.5% and 31.4%, respectively) and were directed on a single species (75.2). We found that 30 corvid species (23% of 133 total) regularly occur in urban environments. The majority (72%) of the studies reported positive effects of urbanization on corvids, with 85% of studies detecting population increases and 64% of studies detecting higher breeding success with urbanization. Of the factors proposed to explain corvids’ success (availability of nesting sites and food sources, low predation and persecution), food availability coupled with diet shifts emerged as the most important factors promoting Corvidae to live in urban settings. The breeding of corvids in urban environments was further associated with earlier nesting, similar or larger clutches, lower hatching but higher fledging success, reduced home range size and limited territoriality, increased tolerance towards humans and increasing frequency of conflicts with humans. Despite geographic and taxonomic biases in our literature sample, our review indicates that corvids show both flexibility in resource use and behavioral plasticity that enable them to exploit novel resources for nesting and feeding. Corvids can thus be urban exploiters of the large-scale modifications of ecosystems caused by urbanization.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review

Benmazouz

Jokimäki

Lengyel

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…From the website: ‘It provides access to an extensive library of ornithological literature of international scope, and detailed material documenting the history of ornithology in North America over the last 120 years’. Another example, the corvid database, includes all publications on all extant and extinct crows, ravens and magpies (Droege & Töpfer ), archiving 8000 articles (including 1503 journals, books, theses and dissertations), spanning 500 years, from 164 countries.…”

Section: Reinvigorating the Role Of Natural History In The 21st Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unnatural history: is a paradigm shift of natural history in 21st century ornithology needed?

Callaghan

Martin

Brooks

2018

Ibis

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Natural history, across disciplines, is essential for the continuation of science, especially as we attempt to identify the myriad of threats that biodiversity faces in this rapidly changing world. Recording the natural history of birds is perhaps the most prominent, widespread and long‐standing pursuit of this activity. Yet, there is a distinct decrease in publishing of natural history in the ornithological sciences. Concomitantly, the natural history information being published is often in small and regional journals, less accessible by the global ornithological community. We argue that historical natural history needs a modern reinvigoration, and should focus on placing natural history observations in the context of an anthropogenically altered world – ‘unnatural history’. This includes, but is not limited to, behavioural adaptations, novel diet choices, hybridization and novel adaptations to urbanization. Here, we elaborate on natural history's place in modern ornithology, how this relates to citizen science and the potential cost of ignoring it. Ultimately, increased accessibility of natural history observations, encouragement of amateur ornithologists' participation in professional societies (and vice versa) and targeted citizen science projects are potential mechanisms by which to reinvigorate natural history in 21st century ornithology.

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Corvids

Wascher¹

2017

Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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The Corvids Literature Database—500 years of ornithological research from a crow’s perspective

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review

Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review

Unnatural history: is a paradigm shift of natural history in 21st century ornithology needed?

Corvids

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