Abstract
Hedges and forest edges play a major role in providing nesting sites,
food resources and shelter for birds in agricultural landscapes of
western and central Europe. We investigated the response of farmland vs.
woodland birds at two degrees of isolation of hedges from forest and to
vegetation structure. We surveyed 200 m long sections of six forest
edges, six hedges connected to forests and six isolated hedges. Species
richness and abundance of farmland birds were higher in hedges than in
forest edges, species richness and abundance of woodland birds were
lower in hedges than in the forest edges. Species richness and abundance
of both groups did not differ between connected and isolated hedges.
Width and height of hedges and edges did not affect the species richness
and abundance of either farmland or woodland birds. Furthermore, bird
community composition differed between habitat types (hedge vs. forest
edge) and also between hedge isolation levels (hedges connected to
forest vs. isolated hedges). Based on our results, we emphasize the
importance of hedges in conserving farmland birds and encourage policy
makers to support hedge creation and maintenance with landscape-wide
management strategies supporting a diverse hedge structure. Both
connected and isolated hedges play an important role as they harbour
different bird communities.
Keywords
Abundance, Community composition, Connectivity, Forest edge, Species richness
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