Bird Abundance and Species Richness In Chicago Community Gardens
Rebecca Schnorenberg University of Illinois at Chicago
Introduction
Methods
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Bird Species
• Community gardens are important refuges for animals
including birds
• Birds can be beneficial to the garden and gardeners
• Birds can act as pollinators and insectivores
• Birds can also negatively affect gardens by being crop
pests
• Bird abundance and species richness can be affected by
garden area and amount of shrubs or woody vegetation
• Research question: How do native and non-native species
respond to various characteristics of urban community
gardens?
• Birds were censuses twice in each garden by ‘point
count’ method
• Birds were identified by song, sight, or both
• Bird sex was identified along with if they were in the
garden or not
• Garden size and distance from water were measured by
Google Earth
• Woody vegetation was counted within the garden
• Garden characteristics were analyzed against native
and all species bird abundance along with species
richness of native species and all species
All of the birds sighted across the 25 Chicago
community gardens along with their overall
abundance
Correlation Between Variables
Garden Size Distance From
Water
Total Woody
Vegetation Count
Abundance of All
Species
+.198 -.345 -.098
Abundance of
Native Species
+.652 -.169 +.240
Species Richness
of All Species
+.847 -.169 +.630
Species Richness
of Native Species
+.892 -.102 +.623
Correlation Table
• Garden size has the greatest effect on bird abundance and
species richness
• Larger gardens have a greater abundance of birds and a
higher richness of native birds in particular
• The most prevalent species was the House Sparrow
appearing at all but one garden
Variables with highest correlation
Correlations with significant differences between bird abundance native
species (+.652) and bird abundance of all species (+.198)
Graphs of Significant Variables
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Bird
Ab
un
da
nce
Gareden Size (sq m)
Bird Abundance (all species) vs Garden Size
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Bird
Ab
un
da
nce
Garden Size (sq m)
Bird Abundance (native species) vs Garden Size
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Sp
ecie
s R
ich
ne
ss
Garden Size (sq m)
Species Richness (native species) vs Garden Size
• Photos of gardens by Paul Bick
• Photos of birds found on Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Photos of Gardens
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