{"id":571755,"date":"2026-01-20T10:42:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=571755"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:42:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:42:57","slug":"multicolored-birds-avoid-urban-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/multicolored-birds-avoid-urban-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Multicolored birds avoid urban areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just 13 centimeters (CM) long and with plumage ranging from bright orange-yellow to turquoise, the green-headed tanager (Tangara seledon<\/em>) would struggle to survive in a large metropolis. Urban trees rarely produce the wild fruits it feeds on, and in the dull grays of the city landscape, its vivid plumage makes it an easy target for predators\u2014dogs, cats, and even people\u2014according to a study published in Global Change Biology<\/em> in June. Instead, it is the adaptable, plain-feathered birds that thrive downtown. The rufous-bellied thrush (Turdus rufiventris<\/em>) is one example, a species about 25 cm long with a rust-colored belly and a grayish-brown back. Its flexible diet includes insects, worms, cultivated fruits, and human leftovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more urbanization progresses, the more homogenized bird communities become,\u201d says biologist Lucas Ferreira do Nascimento, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and lead author of the study. Nascimento explains that many of the showiest species owe their colors to carotenoid pigments. These come either directly from wild fruits or indirectly from eating small animals that feed on carotenoid-rich plants. \u201cTake the greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus<\/em>),\u201d he adds. \u201cTheir pink plumage comes from eating crustaceans loaded with red pigments. In captivity, on a diet of bird feed, they turn pale white.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mathias Pires \/ UNICAMP<\/span>The red-necked tanager (Tangara cyanocephala<\/em>): in a concrete jungle, bright plumage becomes a liabilityMathias Pires \/ UNICAMP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Perching birds, or passerines, make up the largest order of birds\u2014accounting for more than half of all known species. In his study, Nascimento combined data on plumage coloration, body size, and diet with geographic records from eBird, a citizen-science platform with information fed by birdwatchers across Brazil. He then overlaid these records with habitat maps from the MapBiomas project. This allowed him to build a nationwide dataset\u2014classifying habitats into urban, rural, and natural vegetation zones\u2014and then map how bird communities vary across these environments. He excluded non-passerines such as rock pigeons (Columba livia<\/em>) and the blond-crested woodpecker (Celeus flavescens<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a wide-ranging study that looks at whole bird communities rather than just one species\u2014the usual approach in urban ornithology,\u201d notes biologist Erika Hingst-Zaher, director of the Biological Museum at S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Butantan Institute, who was not part of the research team. \u201cIt would be fascinating to complement this with museum records, to see how bird populations in cities have shifted over the decades,\u201d she suggests. She notes that several institutions in S\u00e3o Paulo hold specimens collected from local neighborhoods dating back more than a hundred years.<\/p>\n

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Mathias Pires \/ UNICAMP <\/span>The purple-throated euphonia, with just two flashy colorsMathias Pires \/ UNICAMP <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Nascimento was surprised to find saffron finches (Sicalis flaveola<\/em>) thriving in cities. The males, with their vibrant yellow plumage that catches the eye of the less conspicuous females, must expend extra energy finding the right foods to keep that color bright, Nascimento explains. Given the challenging conditions of city life, such energy costs were thought to limit their chances of survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlashier birds can sometimes adapt to large cities, but they usually show only two or three strong colors,\u201d Hingst-Zaher explains. She notes examples such as the purple-throated euphonia (Euphonia chlorotica<\/em>), a tiny 10 cm bird with a dark blue-black back and yellow belly, and the red-crested cardinal (Paroaria coronata<\/em>), about 18 cm long, with its vivid crimson head, white underside, and gray wings.<\/p>\n

Hingst-Zaher and her team are currently studying purple martins (Progne subis)<\/em>, roughly 20 cm long, which migrate south from North America in September and spend the winter in South America, roosting by the thousands in both rural and urban landscapes until May. These birds are admired for their shimmering blue-black plumage and spectacular morning flights in huge flocks. But as Hingst-Zaher notes, their droppings and noise can be a nuisance for residents. As a result, city officials in places like Campinas and Ribeir\u00e3o Preto have gone so far as to remove their nesting sites\u2014driving the martins away. \u201cWe\u2019ve discovered that these birds are contaminated with mercury, a likely factor behind their population decline in North America,\u201d says Hingst-Zaher.<\/p>\n

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Leonardo Breder \/ USP<\/span>The modest rufous-bellied thrush are far better suited to city lifeLeonardo Breder \/ USP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA diverse and colorful urban birdlife offers people both a direct connection with nature and a pleasant source of beauty,\u201d Nascimento argues. He adds that birds\u2019 beauty can inspire people to engage in conservation and value green spaces more. \u201cPlanting more fruit-bearing native trees could draw back brightly colored species\u2014and make cities more inviting for everyone,\u201d he suggests.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut down your phone and look up above the skyline\u2014you just might spot a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus<\/em>), the fastest bird on Earth,\u201d says Hingst-Zaher, who also organizes Avistar, S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s annual birdwatching festival. About 50 cm long, the peregrine falcon is a migratory raptor that spends part of the year in Brazil. In a dive, it can reach 320 kilometers per hour, killing pigeons and other birds mid-air. \u201cOnce restricted to cliffs in North America and other regions, these falcons now roost on skyscrapers and even air-conditioning units\u2014perfect launchpads for their aerial hunts,\u201d Hingst-Zaher says.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “Urban palettes<\/strong>” in issue 354 of August\/2025.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong>
\n1.<\/strong> How do interactions between frugivorous birds and plants influence bird plumage coloration? (n\u00b0 20\/09286-8<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Doctoral Fellowship; Supervisor<\/strong> Paulo Roberto Guimar\u00e3es Junior (USP); Beneficiary<\/strong> Lucas Ferreira do Nascimento; Investment<\/strong> R$101,515.75.
\n2.<\/strong> Urbanization as a potential environmental filter for passerine plumage coloration (n\u00b0 22\/04217-3<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Research Fellowship Abroad; Supervisor<\/strong> Paulo Roberto Guimar\u00e3es Junior (USP); Beneficiary<\/strong> Lucas Ferreira do Nascimento; Investment<\/strong> R$162,677.95.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nNASCIMENTO, L. F. et al<\/em>. Urbanization filters megacolorful, small-bodied, and diet-specialist species in tropical bird assemblages<\/a>. Global Change Biology<\/strong>. Vol. 31, no. 6, e70263. June 11, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Large cities attract voracious, dull-colored birds and repel small, more colorful ones, impoverishing metropolitan fauna","protected":false},"author":545,"featured_media":571768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[265,266],"coauthors":[1498],"class_list":["post-571755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-urbanism","tag-zoology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/545"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575998,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571755\/revisions\/575998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571755"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=571755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}