Construction and Prioritization of a Multi-Guild Avian Ecological Network in the Xiu River Basin, China

Blue-green spaces are critical for diversified landscape planning. However, rapid urbanization and habitat fragmentation continue to disrupt ecological connectivity in river-basin landscapes. This study focuses on the Xiu River Basin, a major tributary of Poyang Lake and a key node of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. We developed a multi-guild avian ecological network framework to support biodiversity-oriented landscape planning. Birds were classified into four functional guilds: aquatic resident, aquatic wintering, forest resident, and forest wintering. For each guild, we designed a specific set of environmental variables. We integrated MaxEnt and InVEST to identify ecological sources by combining habitat suitability with habitat quality. The results showed that 68.75% of the basin qualifies as good-quality habitat, although suitable habitats remained highly heterogeneous and fragmented among guilds. We identified 1839.93 km2 of ecological sources, 157 corridors, 215 pinchpoints, and 344 barriers, revealing clear differences in the connectivity requirements between aquatic and forest birds and between resident and wintering birds. We further delineated four ecological priority areas and proposed targeted restoration strategies for wetlands, river–lake systems, forested mountains, and urban–rural transition zones. Overall, this study demonstrates that multi-guild connectivity analysis can provide a spatial framework for informing urban forest conservation, blue-green infrastructure planning, and diversified landscape planning in complex basin landscapes.