Flocking the City: Demography and Population Dynamics in Urban Latin America

LM LEVEAU; I ZURIA

Avian Ecology in Latin American Cityscapes

Springer Nature

Año: 2017; p. 55 - 77

We here provide a general overview of the study of bird abundance, demography, and populations in urbanenvironments with special attention on those from Latin America. We found that studies focused on birdabundance and demography were more common in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. We classified speciesincluded in more than four or more studies according to their response to urbanization. In general, specialistbirds were negatively related with urbanization, whereas two invasive exotics, the Rock Pigeon (Columbalivia) and the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), were recorded in most of the reviewed urbanized areasalong Latin America. Although scarce, studies of bird demography revealed, in general, higher bird survivalin urban environments, possibly due to lower predator density. However, anthropogenic causes have beenidentified to mold affect bird populations in urban areas (e.g., window and vehicle collisions, nest predation,predation by domestic cats and dogs). Future studies will importantly add to our knowledge of urban birdecology in Latin American countries by continuing to measure bird numbers and demography patterns, aswell as identifying the factors that mold influence them. Birds, as highly informative and charismaticbioindicators, could play a crucial role in adding evidence-based knowledge for decision-makers to takeaction in building bird-friendly, livable cities.