Breeding Birds and Their Nests in Street Tree Strips in Hangzhou City

Data on birds and their nests were collected in 24 street tree strips in Hangzhou,China,in the breeding season from March to July 2002,and the relationship between the nest-number (NN) and some eigenvalues of the strips was shown by multiple stepwise regression.Thirteen species and their 460 nests in total were observed.Of the nests,83.9% were built by Pycnonotus sinensis and some colonial breeding species including Nycticorax nycticorax,Ardeola bacchus and Bubulcus ibis.Five species including Turdus poliocephalus,N.nycticorax,etc.tended to build nests at tall trees,and the nests for the whole bird community increased with the mean tree height.More positive relations appeared between:1) the foliage height diversity and NN of Lonchura striata and Streptopelia chinensis,2) canopy cover and NN of Pycnonotus sinensis,3) tree species numbers and NN of S.chinensis,4) tree hole numbers and NN of Passer montanusand,5) the distance to large woodland and NN of Lonchura striata,6) the distance to nearest main water resource and NN of N.nycticorax,7) tree strip width and NN of S.chinensis.On the other hand,most bird species avoided the tree strip easily approached by pedestrian,and P.sinensis and S.chinensis were the most sensitive.There are some differences between species in the nest-distributions in the tree strips,reflecting their different way of adaptation.