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Operant Conditioning Task to Measure Song Preference in Zebra Finches
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Linking foraging decisions to residential yard bird composition.

Susannah B Lerman1, Paige S Warren, Hilary Gan

  • 1The Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America. slerman@cns.umass.edu

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Urban yards with lush, exotic plants attract more birds but reduce foraging efficiency compared to native landscapes. Native plantings may help reverse declining urban bird diversity.

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Area of Science:

  • Urban ecology
  • Avian behavioral ecology
  • Conservation biology

Background:

  • Urban bird communities exhibit high densities but low diversity compared to wildlands.
  • Residential yards with native plants support greater native bird diversity than those with exotic vegetation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how residential yard landscape design influences bird foraging behavior.
  • To assess foraging costs using giving-up densities (GUD) in mesic (exotic) versus xeric (native) yards.

Main Methods:

  • Quantified bird foraging decisions by measuring giving-up densities (GUD) in artificial seed trays.
  • Compared GUDs between mesic and xeric residential yards in Phoenix, AZ.
  • Developed a statistical model to calculate species-specific GUDs.

Main Results:

  • Birds in mesic yards had lower GUDs (higher foraging efficiency) than those in xeric yards.
  • Lower GUDs in mesic yards were primarily driven by invasive and synanthropic species.
  • Individual species exhibited lower GUDs in mesic yards, irrespective of overall bird density.

Conclusions:

  • Landscape design significantly impacts bird foraging behavior and costs.
  • Differences in GUDs suggest varying habitat quality between mesic and xeric yards.
  • Native landscapes may be crucial for enhancing urban bird diversity and reversing declines.