Land use change effects on breeding bird community composition

We identified land uses, vegetation cover types, and landscape patterns ass ociated with avian community diversity in 2 rural landscapes in a hardwood forest-tallgrass prairie ecotone that differ with regard to human populatio n density, We obtained long-term (24 Sears) changes in avian community comp osition through records from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. We ob tained historical and present land use, vegetation cover types, and landsca pe structure of both landscapes from high-resolution aerial photography. Av ian community composition in the low density rural population landscape was primarily related to the amount of land in deciduous forest and land treat ed with fire or herbicides, In contrast, avian community composition in the high density rural population landscape was primarily related to the amoun t of land in deciduous forest, native grassland, and roads, Changes in vege tation cover type were related to changes in the avian community compositio n by increasing prairie habitat associated species in the low density rural population and generalist habitat associated species in the high density r ural population landscapes. Loss of neotropical migrants and increased numb er of generalist species in the high density rural population landscape was related to decreased native vegetation, road development, and increased la ndscape fragmentation, Biologists and conservationists in this region shoul d focus attention on preserving biological diversity of rural ecosystems by maintaining native plant communities.