Regional Trends in Bird Communities of Mature Pine Forests between Finland and Poland

Abstract

The breeding bird community [Fringilla coelebs, Anthus trivialis, Parus ater, P. cristatus, P. montanus, Phylloscopus trochilus, Coccothraustes coccothraustes, Garrulus glandarius, Erithacus rubecula, Lullula arborea, Cardeulis spinus, Parus major, Turdus merula, T. visciuorus, Phylloscopus collybita, P. sibilatrix, Streptopelia turtur, Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Buteo buteo and Loxia sp.] of mature pine forests with highly similar foliage profiles was examined on the regional level using data from 2 censuses from Poland, 2 censuses from central Finland, and 3 censuses from Finnish Lapland. Several parameters revealed a greater difference between the Lapponian and central Finnish than the central Finnish and Polish communities. The diversity index H'' did not show a similar decreasing pattern from Poland through central Finland to Lapland as the land bird diversity of wider areas including the whole spectrum of habitats of a particular region or zoogeographical zone.