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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 4, 2026

A Push-pull Protocol to Reduce Colonization of Bird Nest Boxes by Honey Bees

A Push-pull Protocol to Reduce Colonization of Bird Nest Boxes by Honey Bees

Published on: September 4, 2016

Ecosystem services provided by birds.

Christopher J Whelan¹, Daniel G Wenny, Robert J Marquis

¹Illinois Natural History Survey, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Wilmington, IL 60481, USA. whelanc@uic.edu

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

|June 21, 2008

Summary

Birds provide vital ecosystem services, particularly supporting services like pest control and pollination. Their unique mobility and migratory behaviors enhance these crucial ecological functions, though their economic value remains largely unquantified.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Ornithology

Background:

Ecosystem services are natural processes benefiting humans, encompassing provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
Birds play diverse ecological roles, acting as predators, pollinators, seed dispersers, and ecosystem engineers, contributing significantly to these services.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the supporting, provisioning, and regulating ecosystem services provided by birds.
To establish a foundation for quantifying the economic value of bird-mediated ecosystem services.
To identify knowledge gaps and suggest future research directions.

Main Methods:

Literature review focusing on bird roles in ecosystems.
Categorization of ecosystem services based on bird behavior and products.
Analysis of avian characteristics, such as flight and migration, in relation to ecosystem service provision.

Main Results:

Birds provide essential supporting services (e.g., pest control, pollination, seed dispersal) and contribute to provisioning and regulating services.
Avian mobility and migration enable unique contributions to ecosystem processes across large spatial and temporal scales.
The economic valuation of most bird-provided ecosystem services requires further investigation.

Conclusions:

Birds are integral to ecosystem functioning and provide substantial, though often unquantified, benefits to humans.
Understanding bird-mediated ecosystem services is crucial for conservation and sustainable resource management.
Further research is needed to quantify economic values and fill knowledge gaps regarding avian contributions to ecosystem services.