BiodiverCity: a first investigation on bird communities in two urban green areas of Palermo, Sicily

Abstract

Since the 1980s, there has been a growing worldwide interest on urban bird diversity. The avifauna of Mediterranean cities has been however poorly investigated with standardized methods. Accordingly, our investigation aimed to record breeding and migrating species in two XVIII-century green areas of Palermo town: Villa Trabia (8 ha) and the Botanical Garden (10 ha). Starting from spring 2019, we carried 15 census sessions by point-counts, during the morning hours (10 points at Villa Trabia and 11 at the Botanical Garden, set with a minimum distance of 50 m) by recording, in each point, all the birds seen or heard within 10 min. Our preliminary results show that the study sites are mainly visited by ubiquitous Mediterranean bird species. We also correlated species presence and abundance with GIS-mapped flora distribution recorded at the Botanical Garden, to assess potential preference or avoidance in bird behaviours. We finally discuss the potential scientific and management implications to extend this investigation both temporally, across seasons and years, and spatially, in different urban parks, with the aim to compare urban avifauna presence and trend with rural avian communities.