Background: Urbanization will increase in the next decades, causing the loss of green areas and bird diversity within cities. There is a lack of studies at a continental scale analyzing the relationship between urban green areas, such as parks and cemeteries, and bird species richness in the Neotropical region. Bird diversity-environment relationships in urban parks and cemeteries may be influenced by latitudinal gradients or species-area relationships. However, the seasonal variation of species diversity- environment has not been analyzed at a continental scale in the Neotropics.Methods: Bird surveys were conducted in 36 cemeteries and 37 parks within 18 Neotropical cities during non-breeding and breeding seasons. Bird diversity was assessed through Hill numbers, focusing on species richness, the effective number of species derived from Shannon index and the Simpson index. Environmental variables included latitude, altitude, and local scale variables such as area size, habitat diversity and pedestrian traffic.Results: Species richness and Shannon diversity were higher during the breeding season, whereas Simpson diversity did not vary between seasons. During both seasons, species richness increased with area size, was negatively related to altitude, and was the highest at 20° latitude. Species richness was also positively related to habitat diversity, pedestrian traffic, and was highest in suburban areas during the non-breeding season. Shannon and Simpson diversity showed significant relationships with habitat diversity and area size during the breeding season. Bird diversity was similar between parks and cemeteries.Discussion: Our results showed that urban parks and cemeteries have similar roles in conserving urban bird diversity in Neotropical cities. However, species diversity-environment relations at the continental scale varied between seasons, highlighting the importance of conducting annual studies.

Birds are considered excellent bioindicators in urban areas. Some of the ecological processes behind bird ecological patterns in urban areas have been related to birds’ capacities to shift their behaviors. In this brief communication, we report a nest of Azure-crowned Hummingbird (Amazilia cyanocephala) built on a metallic structure that connects telephone wires, surrounded by other electricity and cable wires. After visiting the nest for 19 days, we did not have any evidence of predation, and because of the size and behavior of the chicks during the last two visits, we assume that the nest was successful. Previous studies have suggested that urban systems lay open to colonization by species that can reach them, use their resources, and survive their hazards. We recorded a nest of Azure-crowned Hummingbirds that was built on an open sky telephone. Our observation was a notable example of the degree of venture that some individual birds can exhibit in response to urbanization, suggesting a certain...

β-diversity has been under continuous debate, with a current need to better understand the way in which a new wave of measures work. We assessed the results of 12 incidence-based β-diversity indices. Our results of gradual species composition overlap between paired assemblages considering progressive differences in species richness show the following: (i) four indices (β_-2, β_-3, β_-3.s, and β_r) should be used cautiously given that results with no shared species retrieve results that could be misinterpreted; (ii) all measures conceived specifically as partitioned components of species compositional dissimilarities ought to be used as such and not as independent measures per se; (iii) the non-linear response of some indices to gradual species composition overlap should be interpreted carefully, and further analysis using their results as dependent variables should be performed cautiously; and (iv) two metrics (β_sim and β_sor) behave predictably and linearly to gradual species composition overlap. We encourage ecologists using measures of β-diversity to fully understand their mathematical nature and type of results under the scenario to be used in order to avoid inappropriate and misleading inferences.