• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.411-418
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• 2014

This study seeks to identify the effects of light pollution and environmental factors on Great Tits(Parus major) bird's chirping at dawn. For this research, the campus of Sanji University, Wonju, South Korea was selected as the area with light pollution and the western forest of the Chiaksan National Park was chosen as the natural area herein. The Recording period was between March 26th and May 30th, 2014. As a result of analyzing the chirping time according to light pollution, it was found that the light pollution area clearly showed earlier chirping time than the natural area (p<0.05). Great Tits(P. major) normally start their first chirping before sunrise and in most of the days under investigation of this research, those in Sanji University started to chirp earlier. This faster chirping time seems to improve the chance for the female birds to mate with immature males thus, baby birds hatch earlier than the appropriate breeding season and results in the lack of feed resources. The correlation between Great Tits'(P. major) dawn chirping and environmental factors were investigated herein including the time of sunrise, civil twilight, navigation twilight, astronomical twilight, average temperature, highest temperature, lowest temperature, time of moonrise and cloudiness. The first chirping time of wild birds in the day was found to have correlations with all of the environmental factors excluding the time of moonrise and cloudiness. Great Tits(P. major) started their first chirping before sunrise when the day started to break around civil twilight. Along with the earlier sunrise and higher air temperature, their dawn chirping time was also quickened. The time of moonrise and cloudiness did not show a correlation and further follow-up studies will be necessary in this regard.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.3-10
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• 2010

The subject is to find green roofs' location as stepping stones in green-network in fine scale. The study site is Junggu, Seoul, which has core areas(Bukaksan and Namsan) and green areas(parks, etc.). Through literature review, the closer to core areas and green areas, target species reach green roof easier, and target species must be avifauna(flying species) and high class in food chain, because of possibility of reaching. So, Great Tits, inhabited in Namsan and urban bird, is target species. The location standard of green roofs, realized birds' reaching distance, consists of home range(horizontal range and vertical range) and roof-greening capable area. The green roofs' distribution of location was resulted through GIS analysis of feasible site finding, and classified with weight of score. In discussion, Namsan gives more effect to locate green roofs than Bukaksan does and selected buildings which are grouped in some parts need to be managed with group, green roof district.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2007

We placed and monitored 2,137 nest boxes to determine how the size of the entrance hole and the box placement influenced nest box selection by secondary cavity-nesting birds and to derive recommendations for the use of nest boxes for management of cavity-nesting birds in forested environments. A total of 566 pairs of seven bird species used the nest boxes from 1997 to 2006, 562 of which were secondary cavity-nesters. Sympatric tits such as varied tits (Parus varius), great tits (P. major), and marsh tits (P. palustris) were common breeding birds in nest boxes, and showed clear preferences for 4.0 cm, 3.5 cm and 3.0 cm nest holes, respectively. Tree sparrows (Passer montanus) and Eurasian nuthatches (Sitta europaea) preferred 4 cm and 3.5 cm holes, respectively. We did not detect selection for the directional orientation for the entrance hole, but the birds appeared to avoid nest boxes that faced steep or gentle upward slopes and those less than 1.8 m from the ground. These results are probably related to avoidance of disturbance and predation. We suggest that diverse species can be supported by the placement of nest boxes with entrance holes of various sizes and that specific species can be targeted by selecting the hole sizes preferred by those species. To attract secondary cavity-nesters, managers should avoid placing nest boxes close to the ground and facing hills. This study also suggests that careful selection and placement of nest boxes is needed to avoid biases in research using nest boxes.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.221-231
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• 2023

Great tit (Parus major) is a bioindicator species that can measure environmental changes in urban ecosystems and plays an important role in maintaining health as a representative insectivorous bird. Researchers have utilized artificial nest box surveys to understand the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family of birds, including the Great tits, but it is difficult to conduct a macroscopic study due to spatial and temporal limitations. This study designed and applied a citizen-participatory monitoring of artificial nest boxes project to transcend the limitations of expert-centered monitoring methods. The Suwon Front Yard Bird Monitoring Team installed artificial nest boxes in green spaces in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province and observed the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family through the participation of voluntary citizen surveyors. Participants were recruited through an online survey from February 9 to February 22, 2021, and they directly performed from installation to observation of artificial next boxes from February 23 to August 31, 2021. Online education was provided to the volunteers for the entire monitoring process to lower the entry barrier for non-expert citizen surveyors and collect consistent data, and observation records were collected through a mobile app. A total of 98 citizen surveyors participated in the citizen-participatory monitoring of artificial nest boxes project, and 175 (84.95%) of the 256 distributed artificial nest boxes were installed in green spaces in Suwon City. Among the installed artificial nest boxes, the results of the citizen science project were confirmed for 173 (83.98%), excluding two boxes with position coordinate generation errors. A total of 987 artificial nest box observation records were collected from citizen surveyors, with a minimum of one time, a maximum of 26 times, and an average of 5.71±4.37 times. The number of observations of artificial birdhouses per month was 70 times (7.09%) in February, 444 times (44.98%) in March, 284 times (28.77%) in April, 133 times (13.48%) in May, 46 times (4.66%) in June, 6 times (0.61%) in July, and 4 times (0.41%) in August. Birds using the artificial nest boxes were observed in 57 (32.95%) of the 173 installed artificial nest boxes, and they included Great tit (Parus major) using 12 boxes (21.05%), Varied Tit (Parus varius) using 7 boxes (12.28%), and unidentified birds using 38 boxes (66.67%). This study is the first to consider citizen participation in the monitoring of artificial nest boxes, a survey method for the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family, including Great tits, and it can be utilized as basic data for the design of ecological monitoring combined with citizen science in the future.