The effect of floodplain forest fragmentation on the bird community

Abstract

The paper reports the results of a study focused on ornithocoenoses of floodplain forests in Litovelské Pomoraví locality (Czech Republic). The edge effect on diversity of the bird community is discussed and some implications for floodplain forest management are presented based on the results of investigations into changes in the bird community due to fragmentation of an originally continuous forest stand by regeneration felling, and the results of research into ornithocoenoses of the age-diversified mosaic of forest stands. Perforation of the continuous old floodplain forest by clear felling, which was investigated within this study, slightly increased the diversity of nesting birds. However, bird species typical of open cultural landscape benefitted, whose nesting was not recorded before the perforation of the originally continuous forest ecosystem.