Toward increasing avian diversity: urban wildscapes programs

Residential development in urban and suburban settings is a major cause of habitat change affecting avian communities. The effects from land-clearing prior to initiation of construction followed by landscaping focused on traditional aesthetics has reduced habitat diversity at multiple levels. These residential developments generally emphasize the use of ornamental, nonindigenous vegetation with little to no concern for native species and natural vegetation parameters. As a result, avian community composition and diversity is changed. We compared avian communities at three sites in Bexar County, Texas; two residential neighborhoods in the city of San Antonio and an unincorporated undeveloped site, Government Canyon State Natural Area. The residential neighborhoods were a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department certified wildscapes development and a traditionally developed neighborhood. Bird abundance and species richness in the neighborhoods were greater than at Government Canyon State Natural Area (P < 0.01), but no differences existed between the neighborhoods. Bird diversity was greatest at the wildscapes neighborhood (P < 0.01). Further, bird diversity did not differ between the traditional neighborhood and the natural area. Evenness differed among sites (P = 0.006) with the natural area having the greatest value. Bird diversity measures correlated with woody plant density and vertical cover (r = 0.358 to 0.673, P < 0.05) at residential sites. Residential areas incorporating natural landscapes into their design attracted a greater variety of birds than traditionally landscaped residential areas.