The variation in bird populations across different European forest and farming landscapes

What is it about?

We surveyed breeding birds in six different 1-km2 landscapes, from high forest cover to intensive farmland, in eight European countries. The results show that total bird species diversity was strongly impacted by country, fragmentation and landscape diversity. The study also indicated that forest specialist birds and open habitat specialist species responded strongly to forest cover. The conclusions from this large study show that there are many important determinants of the structure of bird communities including the amount and fragmentation of habitats. Therefore, no single measure of landscape structure can be used to predict the whole bird community.

Featured Image