To better understand bird response to percentage and pattern of woody cover in agricultural areas, we recorded richness and abundance of breeding birds in 500-m transects along 18 wooded streams in southeastern Nebraska. Transects had differing amounts of woody cover in the surrounding landscape (~2-39%) out to distances of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 m. We grouped bird species as woodland (22 species) or edge (30 species) and analyzed results from the 1999 and 2000 breeding seasons using information theoretic methods. Richness of the woodland group increased with percentage of woody cover out to 500 m, but abundance did not change. In contrast, richness of the edge group was not affected by landscape variables, but abundance increased as [...]
