COMPARISON OF THE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT HABITAT ATTRIBUTES TO AVIAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

The possible importance of individual tree species in avian habitat selection was investigated by comparing tree species contributions to contributions of horizontal and vertical patchiness and density of vegetation. Individual bird species responded with greater frequency to number of particular species of trees than to any variables depicting structure. Many of the commonly found correlations of bird community relationships to vegetation profiles may be the result of combining analyses of many different bird species with many different tree or plant species associations. Studies of avian habitat use should include measure of tree species composition of the sites even if foliage profile or density measures alone provide statistically significant results.