Urban park characteristics defining avian community structure in Delhi, India

Avian community in the urban landscape is poorly understood in India. The urban park plays a crucial role in maintaining urban biodiversity. The purpose of this study is to estimate the bird species diversity in 64 urban parks in Delhi and quantitively analyze the influence of vegetation structure and landscape variables. As the results, a total of 90 species and 19,131 individuals were found and the highest number of birds were found in Astha Kunj Park with 41 species, while the highest value of diversity was recorded in Budhha Jayanti Park (13.51). Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that measures of disturbance and vegetation significantly explained variations of 70% and 65% in habitat use by various guild structures. The regression models revealed that species diversity can be predicted by the presence of native trees and less urbanization (p < 0.05) whereas, species richness can be significantly and positively predicted by distance from the road, and number of visitors (p < 0.05) present in the parks. Different feeding guilds were observed to adapt to diverse environmental conditions in urban parks, such as ground vegetation cover, canopy cover, diameter at breast height, visitors, and park size (p < 0.05, <0.1). In summary, our findings highlight the significance of maintaining and increasing the native trees, while also incorporating non-native vegetation strategically. Additionally, a multi-layered vegetation approach in parks can serve as a protective barrier against surrounding disturbances and improve habitat quality. Future urban park management and development plans should consider the social-ecological approach that can benefit bird diversity.