Floodplain Forests and Urban Parks – A Brief Comparison of Bird Diversity

Abstract Urbanization in cultural landscapes generally tends to select for omnivorous, granivorous, and cavity/hole nesting bird species in green urban areas. Studies on bird diversity in the cities are important to better understanding to the ecology of urban and sub-urban landscapes. The aim of this study was research on bird diversity in urban parks in Olomouc city in order to brief comparison with bird diversity in hardwood floodplain forest habitats based on our older above-mentioned study. Bird diversity in urban parks was very similar to the bird diversity in some localities of floodplain forests from the Czech Republic. Comparison between urban parks and hardwood floodplain forests in the vicinity of the city revealed a high similarity of alpha-diversity and diversity indexes. These results indicated that large urban parks have nearly the same importance for bird diversity such as managed hardwood floodplain forests. Results highlighted an importance of urban green areas for biodiversity maintaining in European cultural landscapes.