Urban Heat Islands And The Seasonal Behavioural Shifts Of Common Birds In Small Indian Cities

Authors: Dr. Kalpana Singh

Abstract: Urban heat islands are becoming an increasingly crucial factor in urban environmental change, affecting local temperature patterns and behavioral and ecological relationships of birds in urban areas. In small Indian cities, rapid construction of infrastructure, expansion of impervious surfaces, loss of vegetation cover and change in land use can increase thermal stress and change the availability of food, water and habitats for nesting. In this paper, we provide a critical narrative review of the interactions between urban heat islands and seasonal behaviour of common urban birds and the ecological dynamics in small Indian cities. We explore how hotter temperatures might affect daily behaviour patterns, foraging behaviour, drinking rate, shade-seeking, resting, nesting and reproduction in summer, monsoon and winter with particular attention on species that are adaptable, such as house sparrow, rock pigeon, house crow and common myna, as well as their thermal tolerance, habitat requirements and behavioural flexibility. The review also explores the potential implications of urban warming on resources available, breeding capabilities, species interactions, and the distribution of birds across urban microhabitats. There are also several limitations in the existing literature, and we find it very important to distinguish between behaviour of birds in urban heat islands from behaviour of birds influenced by urban climate change, food availability, habitat structure and other urban pressures. It is also clear that understanding these relationships is critical to the development of climate-sensitive urban planning strategies to protect bird habitats and to maintain ecological integration. It ends by identifying some of the studies which are seasonally resolved research and biodiversity-oriented interventions like urban tree cover, shaded green spaces and water. By linking urban climatology with bird behaviour, a conceptual framework for bird responses to urban warming is laid in this review.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23364008