The impact of urbanization on avian communities during the breeding season in the Huanghuai Plain of China

This dataset was collected during the 2022–2023 breeding seasons in the
Huanghuaihai Plain, China, to assess the impact of urbanization on bird
communities. It includes species occurrence and abundance records across
multiple line transects, as well as calculated diversity indices including
species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index, and Pielou’s
evenness. Environmental variables were recorded for each transect,
including building index (BI), environmental noise (EN), human disturbance
index (DI), and distance to county center (DCC), which were combined to
form an urbanization synthetic index (USI). The dataset also incorporates
five species-level ecological and life-history traits: body mass (g), diet
category, clutch size, nest site, and provincial distribution. Analyses of
these data indicate significant differences in species diversity and
functional traits among urban, suburban, and rural habitats. USI was
negatively correlated with species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity,
but showed no significant relationship with functional traits.
Environmental noise, distance to county center, and the proportion of
buildings within a 250-m radius were identified as key factors influencing
species diversity, while environmental noise and distance to county center
were the strongest predictors of functional traits. These data can be
reused to examine the effects of urbanization on avian community
composition and diversity, to compare biodiversity patterns across
regions, or to inform conservation and urban planning strategies.