Branta Issues > Issue №13 (2010)

Breeding avifauna of shelter belts of forest-steppe zone in Left-Bank Ukraine

T. N. Kuzmenko, Y. V. Kuzmenko

It was founded that avifauna of the investigated territory is represented by 51 bird species. There were studied different types of forest shelter belts: from sparse to dense underbrush, with different tree composition. The least number of bird species breeds in forest belts without underbrush, most of them foraging on the adjacent fields, not only in forest shelter belts. Tree Sparrow dominates. 39 bird species dwell loose-planted shelter belts, among them the Chaffinch, Yellowhammer and Tree Pipit dominate. The most numerous bird species are in the dense shelter belts with thick underbrush – 41 species, however only small percentage of them feeds on fields. The Yellowhammer breeds in all types of shelter belts, and Ortolan Bunting, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow, Great Tit breed in most types. Some bird species breed in the only one belt type: the Barred Warbler and Icterine Warbler in acacia, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in loose-planted oak belts, and Syrian Woodpecker in dense black poplar belts. Bird associations of dense mixed and dense ash shelter belts are the most similar, though, in general, bird associations of all belt types with ash are alike and have a lot of the same species.