Relationship between Bird Fauna Studied by Line Transect Counts and Structure of Satoyama-landscape on the Keihanna Hills

Abstract

Traditional rural landscapes, Satochi and Satoyama in Japan are important factors for conservation of biological diversity. We conducted line transect counts of birds and vegetation research on the Keihanna Hills from May 2001 to April 2002, to describe relative abundance of bird species and bird-habitat relationship in Satoyama and Satochi, and to offer materials for comparisons to similar studies. Through the counts we recorded a total of 10069 birds of 74 species. Dominant five species amounted approximately 60% of the total number of birds counted. The vegetation type with which the number of a bird species correlated changed depending on which species was being focused. The species richness did not correlate to the percentage of woodland area in the study sites. Species richness of breeding birds correlated with no vegetation type. Species richness of wintering birds correlated with percentage of grassland area, and numbers of landscape units in the study sites; this result suggested that human activities that created landscape mosaics were important for bird diversity.