Bird diversity in urban green space: A large-scale analysis of differences between parks and cemeteries in Central Europe

Urbanization is a permanent and still continuing expansion of human settlements and is responsible for dramatic changes of natural areas to urban areas. In traditional view, urbanization is often blamed for the loss of biodiversity and biotic homogenization of natural communities. However, for some species, urban areas, can represent suitable environment for life and even enable them to maintain stable and abundant populations. Urban ecosystems are not homogenous; within human settlements we can find several different habitats which can be occupied by species with different tolerance to certain aspects of urban life. This diversity can be exhibited by interhabitat changes in species richness, diversity and abundances of local communities. Here, we investigated biodiversity patterns in bird communities of two urban habitats, parks and cemeteries, in three Central European countries. Data on species richness, diversity and abundances of birds were collected from published papers as well as unpublished sources. Our analyses revealed that bird species richness was positively correlated with area and age of trees in both habitat types. There was however no significant relationship between species diversity and area in both habitat types. Moreover, species composition of bird communities significantly varied between cemeteries and parks with strong preference for one of habitat types in several species. Predominant occupancy of habitat type by certain species could be linked to interhabitat differences in vegetation structure, human behaviour and management. Interestingly, several bird species often recognised as urban avoiders were detected in surveyed cemeteries and parks.     

Interrelationship of birds and habitat features in urban greenspaces in Delhi, India

Biodiversity conservation in urban areas has become significant not only because of increasing human population in urban centers but also because it is one of the innovative ways to conserve biodiversity as suggested by various global environmental conventions. The present study was conducted with the purpose of assessing diversity and density of bird and woody species in some greenspaces of Delhi, the rapidly urbanizing capital of India. The landscape of Delhi consists of a broad spectrum of environments ranging from the city forests to highly modified artificial landscapes in certain parks. We assessed bird and woody vegetation in 20 m×50 m belt transects in each of the 19 randomly selected greenspaces of varying size. Results exhibit a negative relationship between the density of exotic woody species and bird diversity. Specifically, Prosopis juliflora – an exotic, which was the most abundant tree in our samples – exhibited a negative relationship with bird diversity. Principal component analysis (PCA) reveals that forest-preferring bird species increase with increasing greenspaces size, shrub diversity and shrub density. We conclude that maintaining larger greenspaces with high structural diversity may be effective in maintaining plant and bird diversity in the study area.     

Taxonomic diversity,functional diversity and evolutionary uniqueness in bird communities of Beijing's urban parks: Effects of land use and vegetation structure

The importance of biodiversity conservation is well recognized, and the loss of biodiversity is particularly evident in highly urbanized areas. On the other hand, green spaces inside cities, as parks, can provide a resource for maintaining and increasing biodiversity, especially for bird species. However, only a few studies have addressed the effects of vegetation structure and land use composition on different components of biodiversity.Here, we explored the response of bird community composition to environmental differences related to land use composition and vegetation structure in green spaces in the city of Beijing, China. We compared the values of taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and community evolutionary distinctiveness in breeding bird communities, among ten urban parks of the world's third most populous city. Variation partitioning analysis and generalized linear mixed models were used to explore the unique and shared effects of land use composition and vegetation structure on each biodiversity metric.Park size was not associated with the diversity of bird communities in Beijing. Land use composition was the best predictor of change in bird community composition, followed by vegetation structure at ground level and the intersection between land use and vegetation structure at tree level. Water coverage increased bird species richness, while the presence of large trees increased both taxonomic diversity and bird functional richness in urban parks. Finally, the presence of patches of deciduous trees showed a positive effect on the average score of evolutionary distinctiveness of bird communities. In conclusion, we highlight that different elements of the environment are supporting different components of bird community diversity.     

Pocket parks in a compact city: how do birds respond to increasing residential density?

The desire to improve urban sustainability is motivating many city planners to adopt growth strategies that increase residential density, leading to substantial changes to urban landscapes. What effect this change will have on biodiversity remains unclear, but it is expected that the role of public greenspace in providing wildlife habitat will become critical. We explored the role of urban “pocket parks” as habitat for birds, and how this role changed with increasing residential density in the surrounding neighbourhood. We found that parks in neighbourhoods with high levels of public greenspace (corresponding to less residential land) supported more bird species and individuals overall, and more woodland-dependent species, insectivores and hollow-nesters. Total greenspace area was more important (included in the best ranked models for all bird responses) than the configuration (number, average size and connectivity) of greenspace patches. The majority of species were common suburban birds, indicating that species we assume are tolerant to urban areas will be negatively affected by increasing residential density. Parks form part of an interconnected network of urban open space. For parks to continue to support a diverse native bird community, the network must be viewed, managed, and maintained in its entirety. We suggest three key management actions to improve the bird diversity values of urban greenspaces in compact cities: (1) Increase urban greenspace cover in residential neighbourhoods. (2) Increase vegetation structure in greenspace. (3) Encourage homeowners to plant trees and shrubs.     

Comparison of bird diversity between temperate floodplain forests and urban parks

Biodiversity in urban green areas has been widely explored in several bird studies because birds are known to be important bio-indicators. Many studies have investigated the different responses of bird communities to urbanization and land use changes in urban environments. However, there are still important knowledge gaps related to the impacts of the heterogeneity, spatial structure, and connectivity of green areas on avian diversity. Such information is needed for sustainable urban planning. In this study, we focused on the comparison of bird communities between urban parks in the heritage city of Olomouc and hardwood floodplain forests in the vicinity of the city. The results of the study indicate the high importance of urban parks for the maintenance of bird diversity even though urban parks are man-made habitats. The results highlight the importance of some native vegetation structures in urban parks (old trees, bush ecotones) for maintaining urban bird biodiversity. Some implications of the results can be widely used as a decision support tool for the management of urban green areas and for the planning of ecological networks in urban landscapes.     

Weak effects of farming practices corresponding to agricultural greening measures on farmland bird diversity in boreal landscapes

Context

The current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union includes three greening measures, which are partly intended to benefit farmland biodiversity. However, the relative biodiversity effects of the greening measures, including joint effects of landscape context, are not well understood.

Objectives

We studied the effects of increasing crop diversity, proportions of production grasslands and fallows, corresponding to CAP greening measures, on open farmland bird diversity, whilst controlling for the effects of distance to forests, field edge density and proportion of built-up areas.

Methods

We surveyed open farmland birds using territory mapping in Southern Finland. We modelled effects of greening measures and landscape structure on farmland birds (7642 territories) using generalised linear mixed models.

Results

Increasing proportions of grasslands increased farmland bird species richness and diversity in open farmland, whereas increasing proportions of fallows increased bird diversity. Increasing crop diversity benefited individual species, but not species richness or diversity. Increasing field edge densities consistently increased the species richness of all farmland species, in-field nesters and non-crop nesters, as well as total farmland bird diversity. The relative effect of edge density was much stronger compared to the three greening measures.

Conclusions

Our results show that promoting fallows and grasslands, in particular grazed grasslands and various types of semi-natural grasslands, has the highest potential to benefit farmland bird diversity. Maintaining or increasing field edge densities, currently not supported, seems to be of even more benefit. In open farmland, with little or no field edges, fallows and grasslands are particularly beneficial.

     

Biodiversity of figs (Ficus carica l.) in Coruh valley of Turkey

The Coruh valley lies within the Caucasus ecological zone, which is considered by the World Wild Fund for Nature and by Conservation International as a one of the biodiversity hotspot in the world. The valley is also recognized by Turkish conservation organizations as an important plant area, an important bird area, a key biodiversity area and has been nominated as a high priority area for protection. This valley is rich in plants and contains 104 nationally threatened plant species of which 67 are endemic to Turkey. Fig (Ficus carica L.) is one of the most important wild edible fruit tree along with pomegranate and olive in the valley. Figs have been used for fresh consumption for centuries and also an important element of natural landscape of the valley. The valley abundantly has black, purple and yellow-green fruited fig trees. In this study we determined some important tree, leaf and fruit morphological characteristics of 50 selected wild grown fig accessions naturally found in the valley. The results showed that the investigated morphological traits of fig accessions displayed significant differences each other. Principal coordinate analysis showed that diversity among the accessions was high and the accessions had black and yellow-green colored fruits were the most diverse groups.     

Urban parks can maintain minimal resilience for Neotropical bird communities

Birds may use urban parks as shelter and refuge, contributing with numerous ecosystem services upon which humans and other organisms depend on. To safeguard these services, it is important that bird communities of urban environments hold some degree of resilience, which refers to the capacity of a system to absorb disturbances and changes, while maintaining its functions and structures. Here we assessed the resilience of the bird community inhabiting an urban park in the Southeast region of Brazil. We classified birds in feeding guilds and identified discontinuities and aggregations of body masses (i.e., scales) using hierarchical cluster analysis. We then calculated five resilience indices for our urban park and for a preserved continuous forest (reference area): the average richness of functions, diversity of functions, evenness of functions, and redundancy of functions within- and cross-scale. The urban park had less species, lower feeding guild richness, and lower within-scale redundancy than the reference area. However, they had similar proportion of species in each function, diversity of functions, evenness of functions, and cross-scale redundancy. The lower species richness and, consequently, the lack of some species performing some ecological functions may be responsible for the overall lower resilience in the urban park. Our results suggest that the bird community of the urban park is in part resilient, as it maintained many biological functions, indicating some environmental quality despite the high anthropogenic impacts of this area. We believe that urban forest remnants with more complex and diverse vegetation are possibly more likely to maintain higher resilience in the landscape than open field parks or parks with suppressed or altered vegetation. We propose that raising resilience in the urban park would possibly involve increasing vegetation complexity and heterogeneity, which could increase biodiversity in a large scale.     

Cemeteries support avian diversity likewise urban parks in European cities: Assessing taxonomic,evolutionary and functional diversity

The aim of this study was to explore different components of avian diversity in two types of urban green areas, parks and cemeteries, in four European countries in relation to environmental characteristics. We studied bird species richness, functional diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness in 79 parks and 90 cemeteries located in four European countries: the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Poland.First, we found no significant differences between cemeteries and parks in bird diversity. However, in both parks and cemeteries, only: two community metrics were affected by different environmental characteristics, including local vegetation structure and presence of human-related structures. Species richness was positively correlated with tree coverage and site size, functional diversity was unrelated to any of the measured variables, while the mean evolutionary distinctiveness score was positively correlated with tree coverage and negatively associated with the coverage of flowerbeds and number of street lamps.Our findings can be useful for urban planning: by increasing tree coverage and site size it is possible to increase both taxonomic richness and evolutionary uniqueness of bird communities. In both parks and cemeteries, the potential association between light pollution and bird species richness was negligible. We also identified some thresholds where bird diversity was higher. Bird species richness was maximized in parks/cemeteries larger than 1.4 ha, with grass coverage lower than 65%. The evolutionary uniqueness of bird communities was higher in areas with tree coverage higher than 45%. In conclusion, the findings of this study provide evidence that cemeteries work similarly than urban parks supporting avian diversity.     

The influence of urbanisation on diversity and trait composition of birds

We analysed the effect of the urban matrix, the urban space surrounding distinct habitat patches, on bird communities. In doing so we assessed the impact of urbanisation beyond the effect of habitat loss. We used a set of 54 wasteland sites of early successional stages that were scattered over the entire urban area of Berlin, Germany. Sites were similar to each other in habitat structure but differed in their surroundings, the urban matrix. Thus, our study design allows to investigate associations between birds and the urban matrix. Our measures for urbanisation are human population density and degree of sealing within 50 to 2,000 m buffer zones surrounding each wasteland site. Along the urbanisation gradients we calculated three measures of bird communities: alpha diversity, beta diversity, and trait profile of the entire bird community regarding food, life-history, and behavioural traits. Alpha diversity did not change significantly along the gradients of urbanisation. However, beta diversity increased along the urbanisation gradients with urbanisation at the local scale (50 m) but decreased at the landscape scale (200 and 2,000 m). Fourth-corner analysis of relationships between urbanisation and species traits showed trait shifts: adult survival rate increased with human population density and densities of birds that are more often reported to show innovative behaviour increased with both human population density and degree of sealing. We conclude that the influence of the urban matrix contributes to the homogenisation of the avifauna by filtering certain species traits and promoting others.     

Stress-resistant trees are more common in urban than rural forests: A case study of Cleveland,Ohio’s natural parks

Natural parks are comprised of preserved forested natural areas that are undergoing natural ecological processes. These areas can offer a refuge for local biodiversity and contribute substantially to ecosystem services in both rural areas with relatively low population densities, as well as high-density urban areas. Forested natural parks located in urban areas should experience more stressful environmental conditions than nearby rural areas, yet we know relatively little about how urbanization impacts tree communities within these important natural habitats. To better understand the impact of urbanization on forests, we investigated the species composition, abundance, and diversity of midstory and canopy trees as well as tree seedlings in urban and rural natural parks in and around Cleveland, Ohio. We found that both urban and rural natural parks have similar tree abundance, but midstory and canopy trees as well as tree seedling communities in the urban natural parks included higher abundances of stress-tolerant species compared to rural parks. In addition, this pattern was driven by changes in native tree species, as we observed low abundance of invasive species. More stress-resistant native species in urban areas include Quercus rubra and Prunus serotina, in contrast to rural natural parks which are dominated by Acer spp. and Fagus grandifolia. Lastly, we show that urban and rural natural parks have similar species diversity within plots, but we found higher variation in community composition among urban natural parks compared to among rural parks. Furthermore, Q. rubra and P. serotina were significantly larger in rural natural parks, indicating that both environmental stress and successional stage could drive compositional differences. Thus, we show that urbanization can have unexpected effects on plant community composition and diversity. Our study refutes the idea that these are degraded habitats, highlights the need to conserve them, and suggests that characterization of local variation in self-assembled urban tree communities will provide the most accurate picture of their management needs and potential ecosystem services.     

Bird song diversity influences young people's appreciation of urban landscapes

Increased losses of green areas in cities reduce people's experience of flora and fauna. Earlier studies have shown that biodiversity has benefits for urban inhabitants but the influence of animal sounds on people's experience of green space is poorly known. A sample of young urban people (N = 227) rated their reactions – positive or negative – to three bird song combinations: House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), 7 spp. i.e. Willow Warbler, Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), Great Tit (Parus major), European Robin (Erithacus rubecula), Common Blackbird (Turdus merula), Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), three urban settings (residential areas with varying amount of greenery) and nine combinations of song and setting. Bird song was generally considered positive and singing by several species was more highly rated than singing by a single species. On average, urban settings combined with bird song were more highly appreciated than the settings alone and even more so where there was singing by several species rather than just one. We conclude that our data support the idea that bird song contributes to positive values associated with urban green space. Urban planners should consider preserving a variety of habitats in cities for hosting a diversity of birds and thereby boost conservation of songbird diversity and recreational experiences for urban people.     

Assessing the species diversity and vulnerability of urban tree populations in the London borough of Westminster

The level of tree species diversity in urban tree populations can have serious implications for urban forest resilience and has a direct impact on ecosystem functioning at the local level. Few studies have measured the relationship between tree species diversity and vulnerability in UK urban forests. This study analysed the species composition, species diversity and the vulnerability to pests and diseases of 10,149 public trees in the London borough of Westminster across three land use types: housing, parks, and highways. Tree species diversity was significantly different across these land use types (Shannon’s diversity index (H) was 2.47 for housing sites, 1.63 for parks and 0.83 for highways) and we found that higher diversity appears to result in reduced vulnerability, evidenced by negative correlations between tree species diversity and susceptibility to pests and diseases. A stronger negative correlation was found between vulnerability and species richness than between vulnerability and Gini-Simpson’s diversity index. Our study reinforces the role of biodiversity indices in establishing and monitoring baseline levels of UK urban tree diversity. Our findings may inform future tree planting projects, help to ensure that development does not negatively affect urban tree diversity and inform proactive strategies for urban trees to contribute to wider biodiversity conservation.     

Combining the preferences of residents for neighborhood green spaces and conservation of avian diversity: Case study from Beijing

Cities in China support higher human population densities compared to those in western countries; consequently, the high pressure placed on cultural ecosystem services (CES) provision of residential green spaces might hinder overall human wellbeing and the maintenance of avian diversity. Thus, this study aimed to identify how to meet the main preferences of citizens for residential green spaces while simultaneously enhancing bird diversity in city neighborhoods, generating a win-win scenario for human needs and biodiversity. This study was implemented using 568 questionnaires for residents and GLMM for bird-environment statistical analyses. Residents in Beijing preferred higher levels of bird species richness than individual abundance in neighborhoods. Residential green space appeared to serve as the movement corridor for some rare species, indicating the importance of promoting the presence of migrant bird guilds, which is currently incidental. The cultivation of fruit-bearing shrubby plants was supported by most city residents, and would also promote the presence of migratory birds in green spaces. In contrast, while increasing the width of residential green spaces would benefit migratory birds, it had less public support. This multi-disciplinary study clearly demonstrated that both the quality of life of humans in cities and biodiversity conservation could be efficiently incorporated in green space plans, even under highly urbanized circumstances.     

Urban-rural and temporal differences of woody plants and bird species in Harbin city,northeastern China

Urbanization has been greatly accelerated by the economic growth in China, while its possible effects on woody plants, bird species and their associations are not well defined yet. Here, we analyzed urban-rural gradients (landscape level: urban-farmland-forest-natural reserves; city level: ring road and urban build-up history) and temporal data (1955–1980–2014 for woody plants; 1980s–2010 s for birds) in Harbin city, China, to investigate the changes in the composition and diversity of woody plants and birds during urbanization. Both landscape gradient and temporal data confirmed that urbanization had the function of species conservations with sharp increases of alien species and tropical type plants. In the case woody species, 60-yr urbanization in Harbin had induced increases of 9 families and 17 genera, and there were 7–20 more families, 12–35 more genera, 1.6–2.6 higher Margalef richness in urban areas than those in nature reserves and local forest farms; Increases in alien species (4-fold in 60-yr urbanization; 21% in urban area vs <2% for non-urban region) and tropical type plants (1.6-fold in 60-yr urbanization; temperate/tropical ratio at 1.2 in urban area vs >1.6 in non-urban area) were mainly responsible for these compositional changes, which can be proved by their significant correlations. Moreover, moderate disturbance had peak values in alien species, tropical type plants, Shannon-wiener diversity, Margalef richness index and Pielou evenness index, and both ring road- and buildup history gradients showed the similar tendency. Compared with those in 1980s, forest- and eurytopic-habitats birds increased 9–11 species (23–39%), and omnivorous, insect-eating, and phytophagous bird increased 5–9 species (14.1–29.4%) in those in 2010s, indicating that bird temporal changes were closely related with the changes in urban forests owing to food supply and habitat provision. Our findings could provide data for biodiversity evaluation of urbanization effects, and is also useful for ecological re-construction of local cities in China.     

Biodiversity in sacred urban spaces of Bengaluru,India

Urban green spaces provide critical social and ecological support for cities, but we know little about their diversity and composition in cities of the Global South. This is especially true of lesser known urban spaces such as sacred sites, which are of important cultural and biodiversity significance. We examine tree diversity and composition in sacred sites in Bengaluru, one of India’s fastest growing cities. We recorded 5504 trees from 93 species across 62 temples, churches, and Hindu, Christian and Muslim cemeteries in central areas of Bengaluru. Over half (52%) of the tree species were of native origin, a much higher proportion when compared to other green spaces in the city such as parks. Tree density in sacred sites was much higher than that in parks and informal settlements in Bengaluru. Temples and Hindu cemeteries contained the highest proportion of native species, with large numbers of Ficus benghalensis, a keystone sacred species. Trees in sacred spaces provide an important buffer against urban environmental stress in Indian cities, and serve as refuges for urban wildlife and biodiversity. We need greater information on these lesser known, but culturally significant alternate spaces. They play an important, though ignored role in the environmental sustainability of rapidly growing cities in the Global South.     

The association between plant diversity and perceived emotions for visitors in urban forests: A pilot study across 49 parks in China

Urbanization introduces uncertainties to the biodiversity of plant communities. The perception of biodiversity can be associated with positive mental health and well-being, but direct evidence is still insufficient. In this study, we collected data about plant biodiversity assessments from studies on urban forests in the literature of China’s national knowledge infrastructure. Records of the species amount, Shannon index, and Simpson index were extracted from 49 urban forest parks in 13 cities across mainland China from 2018 to 2021. A total of 1938 facial photos were obtained from microblogs with check-in locations at these parks in the Sina Microblog in 2020. Happy, sad, and neutral emotions and positive response index (PRI; happy minus sad) were rated and mapped for spatial distributions. The amount of species was distributed as a heterogeneous pattern for all plant types, and biodiversity was higher in the northern regions (e.g., ~55% in Qingdao and over 50% in Taiyuan) than in southern cities along the Yangtze River (e.g., ~35% in Huaihua and Changsha). Trees did not account for the association of biodiversity with emotional expressions. Smiles were elicited mostly in parks with more diverse shrubs (Shannon index: R=0.4335; P = 0.0029) and herbs (R=0.6162; P = 0.0008). Females showed more smiles than males (47% vs. 32%, respectively; F=39.15, P < 0.0001), and happy emotions tended to be higher in older visitors (senior vs. younger: 58% vs. 43%, respectively; F=2.72, P = 0.0280). Overall, we recommend visiting parks in northern cities of China for the benefit of evoking positive emotions through experiencing abundant undergrowth species. Female visitors would benefit more than males in the promotion of mental well-being by perceiving diverse shrubs and herbs in urban forest parks.     

Tree composition and diversity in relation to urban park history in Hong Kong,China

In densely populated cities that are dominated by concrete buildings, urban parks serve as major green infrastructures for ecological and environmental functions. Trees are one of the important components that support these green infrastructures. Despite plenty of urban parks established in Hong Kong in the last 20 years, knowledge of tree composition and diversity is outdated. There were also no studies that investigated the differences in tree diversity in relation to park history. Therefore, this study aims to identify the temporary changes in tree composition and diversity in Hong Kong, by conducting a plot-based tree survey in 32 urban parks of different ages. Overall, 2801 trees belonging to 181 species were recorded in 319 plots across all the parks. A ridit analysis was conducted and it indicated the mature size of trees were not significantly larger in old parks. However, the linear mixed-effects models and the post-hoc tests suggested that DBH, tree height and the proportion of crown dieback for each class of tree size were greater in the old parks. Moreover, the composition of top-ranking dominant tree species varied substantially, where more ornamental and exotic trees were adopted in new parks. For species richness, the sample-based species accumulation curves of different park age overlapped when the horizontal axis of the curve was scaled by the average number of combined individual trees. When the horizontal axis was scaled by the number of plots, the curve for the old parks was above the curve for the new parks. The differences derived from these two accumulation methods indicated a higher tree density in old parks. For species evenness, both the rank-abundance curves and Rényi diversity curves depicted a similar low species evenness in old and new parks. These results suggested that species diversity remained largely unchanged from old parks to new parks though the dominant tree species varied. Greater attention should be paid to increase the species evenness in all urban parks, increase tree density in new parks and improve tree maintenance in old parks.     

Bird-flower interactions in an urban area: Ceiba pubiflora provides nectar and promotes biodiversity in the city

Urbanization has negative effects on plant-animal interactions by reducing plant richness and increasing resource limitations. However, it is possible to replant these areas, and plant species can be selected based on the resources they provide, as well as their relationships with animals. I observed several trees of Ceiba pubiflora (Malvaceae, Bombacoideae) to identify the bird species interacting with their flowers in an urban area. This plant may be especially important, as it blossoms during the dry season, when the overall flower availability in the study area is low. It may also be important during a short period of decline in the fleshy fruit supply. Even though C. pubiflora was growing in the city and had a low volume of nectar accumulating in its flowers (mean of 1.73 μl; SD = 1.39 μl), it attracted a variety of birds (25 species belonging to six families), some of which are usually regarded as forest dependent. Nectarivorous birds from the family Trochilidae (hummingbirds, n = 12 species) had the highest percentage of visits (64.08%), especially during periods of relatively high nectar sugar concentration and calorie availability (c. 18% and 1.5 cal., respectively). Hummingbirds primarily acted as nectar thieves but also sometimes as potential flower pollinators. In contrast, several nonnectarivorous birds (frugivore-granivores, frugivore-insectivores and omnivores) acted only as nectar robbers or flower predators. Ceiba pubiflora flowers appear to be an important source of energy for birds in the urban area. The data of this study show that C. pubiflora has utility as management tool to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities.     

In the bleak mid-winter: The value of brownfield sites for birds during the winter

Brownfield sites (e.g., wastelands, disused industrial grounds and power stations) are valuable refuges for urban birds during the breeding season. This owes to the presence of vegetation in different stages of succession, which provide a high diversity of food and breeding resources. However, insufficient research has explored their winter value, when temperatures are lower and food is scarcer. Accordingly, 342 bird and habitat surveys were conducted in brownfield sites, and other land-uses, across Greater Manchester. Bird density estimates were then calculated using Distance software and bird-habitat associations were analysed using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Moreover, the impact of brownfield site development on winter bird density from 2000 to 2009 in Greater Manchester was explored using the bird density estimates, and historical image function in Google Earth. In brownfield sites, Pica pica had the highest density estimate (142 per km²), although four species had estimated densities > 100 per km² (Turdus merula; Cyanistes caeruleus; Passer domesticus; Aegithalos caudatus). The CCA indicated that Aegithalos caudatus, Cyanistes caeruleus, Parus major, Prunella modularis were associated with Fagus sylvatica, Betula pendula, and Buddleja davidii on brownfield sites, which during the winter 1) produce seeds 2) support overwintering insects, providing a valuable food source. Nevertheless, across land-uses, most species favoured green space and pre-2000 housing. Brownfield sites were most replaced between 2000 and 2009, with 17.8 km², 14.9 km², and 12 km² replaced by commercial, industrial, and post-2000 housing respectively. This is likely to have had a negative impact on the winter density of most bird species, owing to 1) the removal of brownfield site vegetation 2) increases in impervious land cover. Future declines in winter bird abundance could be mitigated by retaining brownfield site vegetation and setting aside brownfield sites in close proximity to green space and pre-2000 housing.