Abstract: Understanding the effects of anthropogenic landscapes on birds would inform conservation policy. In August 2019, we used line transects to survey bird communities in four habitats, i.e., cropland, village, forest, and highway, in the mountainous area of southern Anhui Province. In total, we recorded 4432 birds, belonging to 86 species, 39 families, and 13 orders. The mean bird abundance decreased from village to cropland, highway, and forest. The mean species richness decreased from cropland to village, highway, and forest, while the accumulated species richness decreased from cropland to forest, village, and highway. The Shannon diversity index in cropland was the highest, while the Pielou evenness index in cropland was only slightly lower than that in forest. These indices in village were the lowest. There were significant differences in bird species composition among the four habitats. The Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index was the highest between forest and village, followed by that between forest and cropland, whereas it was the lowest between highway and cropland. The occurrences of 14 species were significantly correlated with the habitat types. These results indicated that there were significant differences in bird communities among the different landscapes in the mountainous area of southern Anhui. All habitats should be conserved to protect the bird diversity in this region. Among those habitats, croplands were the most preferred for birds. However, human disturbance was more intense in croplands than in other habitats and the value of biodiversity conservation was often neglected. Therefore, the protection of cropland birds should be strengthened.

Key words: artificial landscape, bird community, diversity, uniformity, species composition.