Effects of forest fragmentation on bird communities

Abstract

Effects of forest fragmentation on bird communities and considerations for avifauna conservation are discussed here. Forest area, isolation, habitat diversity, and edge effect are the main environmental factors that determine bird richness in forests, and they undergo alterations during forest fragmentation. Several studies have shown different results regarding to fragmentation effects on the avifauna, and some of them are noticeable, such as: (1) selective extinction within the fragments, i. e., some groups are more susceptible than others to the process and some other groups are even benefited by fragmentation; (2) compensatory density, meaning that there is a density increase of some species in relation to their density in continuous forests. It has been enforced that it is necessary to preserve large extensions of forests instead of preserving several small fragments