|
|
I compared number of species, abundance, and Hill's evenness of breeding birds across the residential gradient from undisturbed-natural to highly developed land in Tucson, Arizona. I surveyed birds and quantified habitat descriptors in 334 random plots from March through June, 1994. Each bird community descriptor correlated with house density, percent of area paved, exotic vegetation, and upper Sonoran vegetation for a native, a non-native, and an indicator bird guild. These habitat variables, plus the presence of undisturbed riparian vegetation, loaded into regression models predicting the number of species in each of the 3 bird guilds. Residential development strategies for optimizing urban wildlife habitat in Tucson are presented.