Birds of Restocked Conifer Plantations in Wales

(1) Five minute counts at 326 points in sixty-two conifer plots, restocked 2-11 years previously, contained 3258 records of thirty-one species of songbird in the breeding season. Density and species richness greatly exceeded previous findings on newly afforested ground. (2) Significant associations between the occurrences of individual bird species and habitat factors were shown. (3) The habitat was simplified to two principal component axes, which were attributed to succession of the conifer habitat and a conifer-broadleaf gradient. (4) The mean position of each species on the two axes was as expected. Outliers were species of open ground or those more often found in broadleaf woodland. (5) Overall bird densities increased with succession and declined along the gradient from pure conifer to much broadleaf admixed with the crop. Species richness did not vary significantly along these axes. (6) A relationship between species richness and plot area was due to larger plots holding greater numbers of birds. Only one species occurred disproportionately infrequently on smaller plots. (7) Areas adjoining thicket-stage conifer crops older than those studied held lower bird densities than centres of the plots.