Data from: Urban green roofs provide habitat for migrating and breeding birds and their arthropod prey

The world is rapidly urbanizing, and many previously biodiverse areas are
now mostly comprised of impervious surface. This loss of natural habitat
causes local bird communities to become dominated by urban dweller and
urban utilizer species and reduces the amount of habitat available for
migrating and breeding birds. Green roofs can increase green space in
urban landscapes, potentially providing new habitat for wildlife. We
surveyed birds and arthropods, an important food source for birds, on
green roofs and nearby comparable conventional (non-green) roofs in New
York City during spring migration and summer breeding seasons. We
predicted that green roofs would have a greater abundance and richness of
both birds and arthropods than conventional roofs during both migration
and the breeding season for birds. Furthermore, we predicted we would find
more urban avoider and urban utilizer bird species on green roofs than
conventional roofs. We found that both birds and arthropods were more
abundant and rich on green roofs than conventional roofs. In addition,
green roofs hosted more urban avoider and utilizer bird species than
conventional roofs. Our study shows that birds use green roofs as stopover
habitat during migration and as foraging habitat during the breeding
season. Establishing green roofs in urban landscapes increases the amount
of habitat available for migrating and breeding birds and can partially
mitigate the loss of habitat due to increasing urbanization.