Seasonal patterns of urban bird diversity in a Mediterranean coastal city: the positive role of open green spaces Olga Tzortzakaki 1 & Vassiliki Kati 2 & Christina Kassara 1 & Dieter Thomas Tietze 3 & Sinos Giokas 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Abstract Urbanization causes rapid changes in the landscape and land use, exerting a significant pressure on bird commu- nities. The effect of urbanization on bird diversity has been widely investigated in many cities worldwide; however, our knowledge on urban bird communities from the eastern Mediterranean region is very scarce. In this context, we aimed to investigate the effect of the different land-cover types on bird species richness and abundance in a densely built coastal Mediterranean city (Patras, Greece) during the breeding and wintering seasons. We sampled the bird community in 90 randomly selected sites along an urbanization gradient. Open green spaces proved to be the most significant factor favouring bird diversity in both seasons. In winter, woody vegetation and impervious surfaces had a positive effect on species richness as well. The local bird community consisted of a large number of species associated with open and semi- open unmanaged green areas, 12 of which are Species of European Conservation Concern (SPECs) showing a declin- ing trend in Europe. On the other hand, in winter the number of forest-dwellers increased significantly. Species richness was significantly higher in winter indicating that the urban environment provides important wintering grounds. Thus, management actions in cities with similar characteristics in the Mediterranean region should focus on the maintenance of open green spaces and woody vegetation patches to en- hance bird diversity. Keywords Urban environment . Mediterranean Basin . Bird diversity . Land-cover types . Winter Introduction Urbanization is considered one of the major drivers of habitat degradation and natural habitat loss (Grimm et al. 2008), caus- ing rapid alterations in animal communities (McKinney 2002). As the urban population grows worldwide (United Nations 2014), maintaining the urban biodiversity is thus con- sidered one of the greatest challenges for current conservation science (Dearborn and Kark 2009) and a priority for urban planning strategies (McDonnell and Hahs 2008; Gordon et al. 2009; Jokimäki et al. 2011). The effects of urbanization on biodiversity have been wide- ly studied at different scales (Clergeau et al. 2006b; Pautasso 2007) and for various organisms (Faeth et al. 2011). It is gen- erally recognized that urbanization has a negative impact on wildlife (Aronson et al. 2014), however, the intensity of the impact may differ depending on the size of the urban areas (McKinney 2008; MacGregor-Fors et al. 2011), latitude (Jokimäki et al. 2002), the location of the study area within an urban area (Jokimäki and Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki 2003) and local habitat structure (Ferenc et al. 2016). Studies at local scale can reveal how species distribution patterns differ among habitats of varying urbanization intensity within an urban area (McKinney 2008) and how they are influenced by landscape structure (Ferenc et al. 2016). On the other hand, large scale studies rather address general patterns of urban wildlife communities and their drivers independently of * Olga Tzortzakaki olgatzortz@gmail.com 1 Department of Biology, University of Patras, GR-26500 Patras, Greece 2 Department of Biological Applications & Technology, University of Ioannina, GR-45100 Ioannina, Greece 3 Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology and Heidelberg Center for the Environment, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 364, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany Urban Ecosyst DOI 10.1007/s11252-017-0695-9