As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Friday 20 April 2018

Crowded urban areas have fewer songbirds per person



Date:  April 13, 2018
Source:  University of Exeter

People in crowded urban areas -- especially poor areas -- see fewer songbirds such as tits and finches, and more potential "nuisance" birds, such as pigeons, magpies and gulls, new research shows.

The University of Exeter and the British Trust for Ornithology examined ratios of birds-to-people and found areas of high-density housing have fewer birds overall -- and the birds people do see are just as likely to cause a nuisance as to make them happy.

Meanwhile, people in green and leafy suburbs see up to three and a half times more songbirds and woodpeckers -- which are associated with a positive impact on human wellbeing -- than birds whose behaviours can cause a nuisance.

Previous research has suggested that people living in neighbourhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress.

"For most people, birds provide their most common encounter with wild animals," said research fellow Dr Daniel Cox, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.


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