Identification of birds in Karaj city with emphasis on the management of harmful species

Document Type : (original research)

Authors

1 Department of Environment, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran

2 Department of Monitoring and Evaluation of Environmental Pollutants, Vice-Chancellor of Municipal Services and Environment, Karaj Municipality, Karaj, Iran

3 Birds identification of Iran

4 Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Natural Resources Campus, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

5 Faculty of Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran

6 Department of Environment, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/aej.2022.326737.2746

Abstract

Increase in urbanization has resulted in residency and adaptability of birds to this habitat and high population of birds inhabit urban areas. These areas play an important role in conservation of local biodiversity, rare and threatened species. Their presence is not without harm and problem for residence and urban managers. These birds in high density make loud noises and disrupt mental health of residents and break the silence needed for calmness of humans. They make their nests on the chimneys and block them, which threatens life of humans. There are gatherings of their feces in parks and green spaces, and on buildings, vehicles that lower the beauty of scenes in these areas and makes problem for the owner of properties. These undesirable impacts make the humans call some species of the birds harmful. In this research, birds of Karaj city were identified and their frequency and distribution were recorded in summer and autumn of 2020 by field surveying. Our aim was to identify harmful birds. All the field surveys were carried out by the same person to lower the individual error and increase the reliability of results. As a result, 72 species of birds belonging to 15 orders and 33 families were observed. Passeriformes had the highest number of species with 45 species. This study indicated that rock dove, laughing dove, rook, hooded crow, house sparrow and common starling were the harmful birds, which brought hygiene, economical and psychological problems for residents. There were 20 bird species present in Halghe-Darreh Landfill. Results of Kernel density function indicated the areas with high density of these harmful birds. Different approaches to controlling the bird population were investigated and the most efficient ones were physical barriers, sterilization and making habitat unsuitable by applying physical, chemical and biological techniques. All the methods were evaluated based on their applicability in the country. The most usable methods for the country were identified.

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References

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Journal of Animal Environment
Volume 14, Issue 4
February 2023
Pages 227-238

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