Comparing community birdwatching and professional bird monitoring with implications for avian diversity research: a case study of Suzhou, China

Background:In the past decades,birdwatching as a hobby developed rapidly and produced ample scientific records that have aided conservation efforts.Therefore,it is increasingly attractive to promote avian research by providing data from birdwatching.Methods:We compared records from 16 years of community birdwatching and a 1-year formalized bird monitoring in Suzhou,China to study the similarities and differences between the two monitoring methods.Results:We showed that within the 325 bird species recorded by the two methods,an annual average of 108 species were documented by community science and 223 bird species were recorded by 1-year formalized monitoring.Measured by the number of bird species recorded per survey trip,the bird monitoring activity of community birdwatchers was significantly lower.Furthermore,the monitoring intensity of community birdwatching measured as the average survey trips per site each survey year was also lower than that of formalized bird monitoring.In addition,community birdwatchers preferred urban landscapes to rural areas.Conclusions:Community birdwatching could record the majority of local birds and complements the professional surveys in avian research.Well designed and coordinated community science can be used to expand the knowledge about avian distribution and population dynamics.These findings are critical for the development of conservation science with regard to community involvement.

Impacts of birdwatching tourism on environment and economy

Birdwatching tourism can be a good model for nature conservation and economic development if it is managed with the well-being of local ecosystems and human communities. Birdwatchers can bring financial sources to local nature conservation. Many communities and local leaders consider birdwatching as a significant mean to develop local economics and publicize regional image, but only few research have tried to study the impacts of relevant activities on destinations. The purpose of the paper is to give a comprehensive review on impacts of birdwatching from conservation economics and biology perspective. Use a behavioral approach study impacts of birdwatching tourism on environment and economy. Specific objectives here are: (1) review the value and significance on environment and economy; (2) economic potential of non-residential birdwatching for community-based conservations; (3) using a behavioral approach, combine quantitative and qualitative methods study birdwatching impacts; (4) outline the economic and environmental benefits and problems associated with the activity; and (5) aid community leaders and tourism business related company in their efforts to improving the value of birdwatching; help the leaders of natural reserve areas develop birdwatching tourism.

Planning and Design Exploration of Birdwatching Town based on Biodiversity Conservation: A Case Study of Wujia Village in Poyang Lake Wetland Reserve

Birdwatching tourism is a type of ecotourism. When carrying out birdwatching tourism, people should deal with the integration relationship between tourism activities and bird ecological environment protection, so as to meet the needs of the ecological civilization construction in China. Taking Wujia Village in Poyang Lake Wetland Migratory Birds Reserve as an example, the relationship between biodiversity and the behavior and needs of birdwatching tourists was analyzed, and the planning mode and design ideas suitable for birdwatching tourism towns were explored, in order to provide the experience for the planning and design of other birdwatching tourism towns.

Using citizen science data to improve regional bird species list:A case study in Shaanxi,China

An accurate and updated regional bird species checklist is the foundation for biodiversity research and conservation.However,with ongoing climate and landscape changes,tracking the distributions of bird species is challenging,and expert-curated species lists are often limited regarding survey area and timeliness.Birdwatching in China is becoming increasingly popular,and observations recorded by citizen birders are quickly increasing as well.Assessing the value of these data for improving regional species lists and studying bird distribution needs a detailed and quantitative comparison of citizen science data and expert-curated data.We collected observation reports from the China Bird Report Center,the largest online open platform for sharing bird sightings in China.We focused on reports from 2016 to 2019 in Shaanxi Province.For expert-curated species lists,we used three sources:the latest bird field guide published by local ornithologists,the province list from Avibase,and a list generated from overlaying distribution range from BirdLife International with the outline of Shaanxi Province.In addition,we also compared the bird sighting coordinates with the species distribution maps from BirdLife International.Surprisingly,species checklists from different sources have considerable discrepancies,even among lists based on expert knowledge.Including birdwatching data,there are 616 bird species in total,but less than half of the species(294)appear in all checklists,and 17.2%of species are unique to one list.One hundred sixty-three species lack birdwatching records,but birdwatching identified 39 species new to the province.One hundred thirty-six bird species have sighting locations outside the distribution ranges from BirdLife International,suggesting that updates might be needed.The data also showed a clear trend of bird species shifting to higher latitudes than their traditional distributions.While being inadequate for generating a regional species checklist on its own,birdwatching data in China can be a valuable source for complementing expert knowledge.In particular,the coordinate information of bird sighting can help track species distribution shifts.On the other hand,comparing expert-curated lists to birdwatching data can generate a species list for targeted birdwatching and monitoring,which will improve the quality of the birdwatching data in the future.