Urbanisation is a major cause of biodiversity loss but careful habitat management and provision of green space within cities can help to mitigate its negative effects. Grasslands occupy large surface areas and have many functions but only a few studies have begun to explore how birds exploit these habitats in urban contexts. We hypothesized that the value of grasslands for nesting and feeding birds is likely to depend both on landscape context, and on local characteristics (grassland size, use and vegetation structure). We surveyed local habitat characteristics, breeding bird presence, abundance and foraging activity in 47 grassland sites, distributed along an urban-rural gradient in two French cities, and varying in the proportions of grassland, built-up land and residential gardens in the neighbouring landscape. Species richness was influenced by local rather than landscape variables; larger sites with scrub within the grassland and taller hedgerow vegetation were more species rich. Total bird abundance, however, depended on landscape context, and increased in suburban grasslands with a higher proportion of gardens in the landscape. Foraging in grass was more frequently observed in shorter, regularly mown, recreational grasslands. These were more common in urban contexts and favoured by species requiring easily accessible and visible invertebrate prey. Less intensively managed wastelands were species rich despite being in urban contexts and favoured by seedeaters and one farmland specialist. A diversity of use and management of grasslands along the urban-rural gradient could allow birds with various requirements to co-exist at landscape scale.

城市化是造成生物多样性丧失的主要原因，但认真的栖息地管理和在城市内部提供绿色空间可以帮助减轻其负面影响。草原占地大面积，具有许多功能，但是只有少数研究开始探索鸟类如何在城市环境中利用这些栖息地。我们假设草原用于筑巢和觅食鸟类的价值可能既取决于景观环境，又取决于局部特征（草地大小，用途和植被结构）。我们调查了47个草地场的局部栖息地特征，繁殖鸟类的存在，丰度和觅食活动，在两个法国城市中以城乡梯度分布，并且邻近景观中草地，建成地和住宅花园的比例有所不同。物种丰富度受局部而非景观变量的影响；草原内灌木丛较多的树篱和较高的树篱植被的物种较多。但是，鸟类的总丰度取决于景观环境，在郊区草地中，其景观花园比例较高，而鸟类的丰度却有所增加。在较短的，定期修剪的休闲草地中，觅食的现象更为常见。这些在城市环境中更为常见，并受到需要易于获得且可见的无脊椎动物猎物的物种的青睐。尽管处在城市环境中，但集约化程度较低的荒地物种丰富，并受到食种子者和一位农田专家的青睐。沿城乡梯度使用和管理草地的多样性可以使具有各种要求的鸟类在景观尺度上共存。