THE EFFECTS OF POSTFIRE MANAGEMENT ON BIRD COMMUNITY SUCCESSION

In September 1989 a wild fire burned over 300 ha of pine (Pinus halepe nsis) forest on Mt. Carmel, Israel. In winter 1990, logging took place on several burned plots. Since then, nonbreeding bird communities wer e censused in unburned plots, in burned plots and in burned logged plo ts. Canonical correspondence analysis was used to investigate the rela tionship between bird composition, post-fire managements and time sinc e fire. Thirty-three species of passerine bird were recorded during fa ll, winter and spring (1991-1994). The most significant differences in avian community structure appeared between the unburned forest and th e burned logged forest, and between the first period (1-2 years) post- fire and the following period (3-5 years post-fire). In general, the n umber of bird species in the ecosystem was increased as the result of imposing different post-fire managements. Therefore, creating a mosaic of different type of habitats contributed in maintaining high bird di versity.