The effects on birds of human encroachment on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

We used alert distance and flight initiation distance to evaluate the effects of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway and Highway on snowfinches’ responses to human encroachment. Road effect was divided into those associated with villages as high disturbance, area between Qinghai–Tibet Railway and Qinghai–Tibet Highway as medium and other areas away from roads as low. The result showed that the alert distance and flight initiation distance of snowfinches decreased significantly with increasing road effects, which indicated the Qinghai–Tibet Railway and Highway significantly affected the bird’s vigilance behavior.