Description
This dataset documents bird communities across different districts of the city of Montpellier (France). Standardized surveys were conducted during winter and spring in 2005 and 2006 to assess the effects of urbanization, landscape structure, and vegetation cover on urban avifauna.
The dataset includes:
- Biological data: species composition and abundance of bird communities per sampling point, by season (winter, spring) and by year.
- Environmental conditions: information related to building density and age, vegetation indices, and urban landscape characteristics (collected during the study but not included in this published dataset).
These data were produced as part of Sabina Caula’s PhD research, which explored urban birds as ecological and socio-economic indicators. The project aimed to analyze how urbanization and landscape structure influence bird biodiversity and the ecological quality of urban green spaces in Montpellier. The dataset provides a reproducible baseline for assessing long-term changes in bird communities and urban landscapes over time.
License: CC BY 4.0
Contacts: Jean-Louis Martin (ORCID), Aurélien Besnard (ORCID)
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 10,657 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Martin J, Amparo Caula S (2026). Birdlife in the urban environment: ecological and socio-economic indicator. Version 1.1. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle & Evolutive (CEFE). Occurrence dataset. https://ipt.gbif.fr/resource?r=jlm_bird&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle & Evolutive (CEFE). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 09219e65-8537-4bc0-b1cd-53b1bd32c165. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle & Evolutive (CEFE) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF France.
Keywords
Occurrence; Urban biodiversity; Bird communities; Community structure; Species distribution; Species abundance; Biodiversity monitoring; Urban ecosystems; Landscape ecology; Environmental gradients; Vegetation cover; Anthropogenic habitats; Conservation biology; Observation
Contacts
https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1538-2278
Geographic Coverage
The study was conducted in the city of Montpellier (southern France) along a gradient of urbanization. Sampling sites span a range of land-use contexts, from densely built city-centre neighborhoods to residential areas and urban parks, and extend to peri-urban landscapes including agricultural fields/croplands and other open habitats. This gradient was designed to capture how urban form and vegetation cover vary across the city and surrounding areas.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [43.584, 3.816], North East [43.644, 3.933] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Kingdom | Animalia |
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| Class | Aves |
| Order | Gruiformes, Columbiformes, Charadriiformes, Bucerotiformes, Galliformes, Caprimulgiformes, Passeriformes, Strigiformes, Pelecaniformes, Piciformes, Coraciiformes, Falconiformes, Accipitriformes |
| Family | Fringillidae, Passeridae, Troglodytidae, Laridae, Sylviidae, Corvidae, Accipitridae, Upupidae, Phylloscopidae, Columbidae, Regulidae, Certhiidae, Hirundinidae, Strigidae, Muscicapidae, Motacillidae, Alaudidae, Aegithalidae, Emberizidae, Phasianidae, Panuridae, Falconidae, Turdidae, Apodidae, Rallidae, Paridae, Picidae, Ardeidae, Oriolidae, Cisticolidae, Sittidae, Sturnidae, Meropidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2005-01-21 / 2006-12-18 |
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Project Data
No Description available
| Title | Birdlife in the urban environment: ecological and socio-economic indicator |
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The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
Bird communities were surveyed using standardized point count protocols. At each sampling point, observers conducted fixed-duration listening and visual detection sessions to record all bird species seen or heard. Surveys were repeated across seasons to ensure comparability of detection conditions and to capture temporal variation in species presence and activity. The protocol allowed the estimation of species occurrence, relative abundance, and community composition in relation to urban habitat characteristics. All observations were georeferenced and associated with sampling metadata to support ecological and landscape-level analyses.
| Study Extent | The study was conducted in the city of Montpellier, southern France, along a gradient of urbanization. Sampling sites were distributed across a range of urban contexts, including densely built city-center districts, residential neighborhoods, urban parks, and peri-urban areas. The spatial design aimed to capture variability in landscape structure, vegetation cover, and anthropogenic pressure across the urban matrix. Surveys were carried out during winter and spring seasons in 2005 and 2006 in order to assess seasonal and inter-annual patterns in bird community composition and abundance. |
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Method step description:
- Field surveys were conducted using standardized point count methods. Sampling locations were selected to represent the diversity of urban habitats along an urbanization gradient. At each point, trained observers performed fixed-duration observation sessions during which all birds seen or heard were recorded. Surveys were carried out during both winter and spring seasons to capture seasonal variation in bird community composition. Following field collection, data were compiled, standardized, and quality-checked. Species identifications were harmonized according to the TAXREF taxonomic reference. Geographic coordinates were verified for consistency, and observation dates were formatted to comply with Darwin Core standards. Abundance values and metadata associated with each sampling event were validated prior to dataset publication.
Bibliographic Citations
- Caula, Sabina, Pascal Marty, and Jean-Louis Martin. "Seasonal variation in species composition of an urban bird community in Mediterranean France." Landscape and Urban Planning 87.1 (2008): 1-9.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | 09219e65-8537-4bc0-b1cd-53b1bd32c165 |
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| https://ipt.gbif.fr/resource?r=jlm_bird |