Do hole-nesting passerine birds fare well at artificial suburban forest edges?

Jarmo Saarikivi, Gabor Herczeg

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    Abstract

    Urbanization and subsequent disturbance, habitat alteration and fragmentation are usually seen as major threats to biodiversity. However, habitat alterations might also create new habitat types that can be used by the local fauna. Here, we tested whether hole-nesting passerines use forest edges next to open grassland areas for reproduction by assessing five golf courses in the Helsinki region in southern Finland. We found a major effect in all species breeding at our sites (great tit, Parus major; blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus; pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca): both nest occupancy and the number of offspring were significantly higher at the artificial edges than 50 m into the original forests. We conclude that man-made suburban forest edges provide suitable habitat for nesting, which could be further improved with the addition of nest
    boxes.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalAnnales Zoologici Fennici
    Volume51
    Issue number6
    Pages (from-to)488-494
    Number of pages6
    ISSN0003-455X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 29 Dec 2014
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Fields of Science

    • 1172 Environmental sciences
    • 1181 Ecology, evolutionary biology

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