Birds in pine and native forests

Abstract

The Monterey Pine Pinus radiata has been planted in Australia for about ninety years. In recent years, large amounts of native forest have been removed and planted with pines, which has greatly affected the original fauna. Almost any bird can be expected to forage in a pine plantation of mixed age-classes. This paper reports the birds seen and breeding in sample plots of 8.09 hectares in pine forest, dry sclerophyll and wet sclerophyll. Many more individuals were observed in the wet sclerophyll than in the pines or dry sclerophyll and thediversity of species was also much greater. Dry schlerophyll was slightly more diverse than the pines. The breeding diversity was two or three times greater in the native forest than in the pines. Of Australian landbirds 19.7 per cent usually or always nest in holes or on stumps. In native forest 35-40 per cent of the birds may use holes but only I I per cent do so in the pines. Most trees in the native forest did not have suitable holes for breeding birds until they were 500 millimetres in diameter or at least fifty years old.