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Abstract

Urbanization is rapidly changing the landscape in which birds live. Habitat alteration and degradation and changes in food resources are affecting the distribution and abundance of birds in urban areas. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida and is undergoing considerable growth. We investigated how urbanization might affect avian abundance and diversity at four sites in Jacksonville, Florida. For all sites we calculated land cover percentages (tree cover, ground cover, impervious surfaces, water, and shrubs) at three spatial scales (50-m, 100-m, and 1,000-m radius) to encompass the area sampled for birds and the larger urban matrix. We conducted point counts and compared counts of species and total individuals across all sites. Additionally, we examined diversity across all sites with the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and rank abundance curves. We examined eBird data to assess both bird species richness and urban bird com- munity similarity. The most urbanized site, with the highest percent impervious surface, located in downtown Jacksonville had the lowest bird diversity; contrary to predictions this site also had the lowest abundance of birds. The other sites, including a city park, a college campus, and a national park had tree cover ranging from 43% to 100%, relatively high diversity, and community similarity, which indicated the importance of green space for birds living in the city. Data from eBird support our findings and larger green spaces, such as large forested parks within cities, may be vital for maintaining urban bird diversity.

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