Features of Avian Community and Their Relationships with Habitats in Shanghai Agricultural Area

During the winter and summer of 2000-2002,four surveys with a total of 17 transects were conducted in agricultural area of all suburb districts/counties in Shanghai City.Species compositions,numbers,occurrence frequency of birds and habitat factors were recorded.Following these surveys,density,diversity,evenness,predominance,biomass,relative important value and their relationships with habitats were analyzed.In total,76 species,which belong to 13 orders,26 families,were recorded.The average density of birds is 5.19 ind./hm2,the Shannon-Wiener index (H) is 1.8742.Five species are predominant species,I.e.Tree Sparrow (Passer montanu),House Swallow (Hirundo rustica),Rufous-backed Shrike (Lanius schach),White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) and Chinese Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis).25 species are waterfowl (most commonly seen are Nycticorax nyticorax and Egretta garetta).Compared with other areas of Shanghai,species density is higher,while diversity is lower.Counts of several species,such as Hirundo rustica,Pycnonotus sinensis and Passer montanus,Lanius schach,significantly outnumber that of other species.The results showed that species richness correlated positively with the area of wasteland,negatively with severity of pollution,and has no significant correlation with forest area,density of population and area of water,etc.It is concluded that wasteland is very important for keeping diversity of birds in agriculture area.