Breeding birds in short-rotation coppices on farmland in central Sweden—the importance of Salix height and adjacent habitats

Plantations of short-rotation coppice (SRC) have a potential for being a useful measure to stop the ongoing impoverishment of farmland biodiversity by increasing structural diversity, and decreasing cultivation intensity and use of pesticides in intensively managed farmland landscapes. The aim of this study was to investigate the relative importance of the structure of the plantation and composition of adjacent habitats for breeding birds in 41 SRCs (meansize±S.E.=9.4±1.6 ha). Mean number of species per ha in the SRCs was 2.8±0.3 species and there were more farmland birds (32 species, 808 territories) than forest birds (22 species, 400 territories). A major result of the present study was the strong influence of adjacent habitats on bird community composition (18 of 22 analysed species affected). There were large differences in bird communities between forest-bordered and open-bordered sites, but occurrence of residual habitats (i.e. other habitats than forest, pastures, shrub areas and arable fields) was also associated with occurrence of several species. The second factor of major importance for the bird fauna was the height of the plantations. Most species (14) were associated with tall plantations (>2 m), seven species were associated with plantations of intermediate (1–2 m) height, and six species were associated with plantations of low height (<1 m). A comparison of ecological traits between species classified as preferring SRC and species classified as avoiding SRC suggests that nest height was the only ecological character associated with a preference for Salix habitats, i.e. species with nests on the ground or in shrubs were more abundant in Salix habitats than in farmland landscapes in general. However, a broad spectrum of species was found in the SRCs and many of these seemed to be dependent on habitat features outside the plantations. Planting of Salix in intensively managed farmland plains will have positive effects on bird diversity by increasing the structural diversity of the landscape. In contrast, plantations on infields in forest-dominated landscapes will have negative effects, since the mosaic structure (i.e. mixture of open and forested habitats) positive for most farmland birds will disappear, and Salix plantations favour relatively few forest species. Additionally, Salix could be planted along sharp edges between coniferous plantations and open farmland in order to increase the complexity of the ecotone in intensively managed forest-farmland landscapes.