Abstract Interactions with nature can improve the wellbeing of urban residents and increase their interest in biodiversity. Many places within cities offer opportunities for people to interact with wildlife, including open space and residential yards and gardens, but little is known about which places within a city people use to observe wildlife. In this study, we used publicly available spatial data on people’s observations of birds from three online platforms—eBird, iNaturalist, and Flickr—to determine where people observe birds within the city of Chicago, Illinois (USA). Specifically, we investigated whether land use or neighborhood demographics explained where people observe birds. We expected that more observations would occur in open spaces, and especially conservation areas, than land uses where people tend to spend more time, but biodiversity is often lower (e.g., residential land). We also expected that more populated neighborhoods and those with higher median age and income of residents would have more bird observations recorded online. We found that bird observations occurred more often in open spaces than in residential areas, with high proportions of observations in recreation areas. In addition, a linear regression model showed that neighborhoods with higher median incomes, those with larger populations, and those located closer to Lake Michigan had more bird observations recorded online. These results have implications for conservation and environmental education efforts in Chicago and demonstrate the potential for social media and citizen science data to provide insight into urban human-wildlife interactions.

中文翻译：

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从在线记录的鸟类观察中洞察城市中人类与野生动物的互动

摘要 与自然的互动可以改善城市居民的福祉，增加他们对生物多样性的兴趣。城市内的许多地方为人们提供与野生动物互动的机会，包括开放空间、住宅庭院和花园，但人们对城市内哪些地方用来观察野生动物知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们使用了来自三个在线平台（eBird、iNaturalist 和 Flickr）的关于人们对鸟类观察的公开可用空间数据，以确定人们在伊利诺伊州芝加哥市（美国）观察鸟类的位置。具体而言，我们调查了土地利用或社区人口统计数据是否解释了人们观察鸟类的位置。我们预计在开放空间，尤其是保护区，会发生更多的观察，而不是人们倾向于花费更多时间的土地用途，但生物多样性通常较低（例如住宅用地）。我们还预计人口较多的社区以及居民年龄和收入中位数较高的社区会在网上记录更多的鸟类观察结果。我们发现鸟类观察发生在开放空间比在住宅区更频繁，在休闲区的观察比例很高。此外，线性回归模型显示，收入中位数较高的社区、人口较多的社区以及靠近密歇根湖的社区在网上记录的鸟类观察次数较多。这些结果对芝加哥的保护和环境教育工作具有影响，并展示了社交媒体和公民科学数据在洞察城市人类与野生动物互动方面的潜力。我们还预计人口较多的社区以及居民年龄和收入中位数较高的社区会在网上记录更多的鸟类观察结果。我们发现鸟类观察发生在开放空间比在住宅区更频繁，在休闲区的观察比例很高。此外，线性回归模型显示，收入中位数较高的社区、人口较多的社区以及靠近密歇根湖的社区在网上记录的鸟类观察次数较多。这些结果对芝加哥的保护和环境教育工作具有影响，并展示了社交媒体和公民科学数据在洞察城市人类与野生动物互动方面的潜力。我们还预计人口较多的社区以及居民年龄和收入中位数较高的社区会在网上记录更多的鸟类观察结果。我们发现鸟类观察发生在开放空间比在住宅区更频繁，在休闲区的观察比例很高。此外，线性回归模型显示，收入中位数较高的社区、人口较多的社区以及靠近密歇根湖的社区在网上记录的鸟类观察次数较多。这些结果对芝加哥的保护和环境教育工作具有影响，并展示了社交媒体和公民科学数据在洞察城市人类与野生动物互动方面的潜力。