Bird response to forest structure and composition and implications for sustainable mountain forest management

doi:10.3832/ifor4921-018

Bird response to forest structure and composition and implications for sustainable mountain forest management

Alessia Portaccio⁽¹⁾ , Yoan Paillet⁽²⁾, Lucas Chojnacki^(3-4), Giovanni Trentanovi⁽⁵⁾, Thomas Campagnaro^(1-6), Sabina Burrascano^(6-7), Tommaso Sitzia^(1-6)

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages 18-27 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4921-018
Published: Jan 11, 2026 - Copyright © 2026 SISEF

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Assessing how bird richness across ecological guilds of mountain-breeding birds responds to changes in forest attributes may inform the development of sustainable management strategies. In this study, we surveyed forest structure and bird communities across 148 sampling units in France and Italy to identify threshold values for stand variables that influence bird species richness. The sampling covered an altitudinal range from 805 to 1555 m a.s.l. and was mainly dominated by mountain beech and Alpine coniferous forests. We modelled species richness of overall bird communities and individual ecological guilds in response to structural and compositional attributes and topographic variables using generalized modelling. Bird species richness was negatively associated with stand-level total tree density. However, higher silver fir density was associated with greater species richness across most bird guilds, which preferred mixed woods and heterogeneous stand structure. An increase in deadwood volume had a significant positive effect on all guilds, confirming the importance of old-growth forest features for forest birds. Threshold values indicating a shift in species richness of bird guilds were identified only for some stand structural attributes (i.e., total basal area and deadwood volume). Our results suggest that the conservation of biodiversity in forest bird communities may benefit from management strategies that maintain mixed, relatively open canopies and promote deadwood retention to ensure the availability of associated habitats. Our approach lays the groundwork for further research, applying this methodology to additional variables and biodiversity metrics.

Keywords

Forest Biodiversity, Deadwood, Biodiversity Indicators, Woodland Birds, Forest Structure, Forest Composition, Bird Guilds

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0002-5143-3338
0000-0002-6307-6892
0000-0001-6221-4256
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, PD (Italy)

(2)

0000-0001-7232-7844
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, INRAE, Lessem, 2 rue de la Papeterie, BP76, F-38402 Saint-Martin-d’Hères, Grenoble (France)

(3)

0000-0002-7870-1208
Department of Plants and Crops, UAV Research Centre, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653 Bl A, 9000 Ghent (Belgium)

(4)

0000-0002-7870-1208
Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode-Melle (Belgium)

(5)

0000-0001-8236-4163
National Research Council, Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, v. Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, FI (Italy)

(6)

0000-0002-6307-6892
0000-0002-6537-3313
0000-0001-6221-4256
NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, 90133 Palermo (Italy)

(7)

0000-0002-6537-3313
Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza, University of Rome, p.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome (Italy)

Corresponding author

Alessia Portaccio
alessia.portaccio@unipd.it

Citation

Portaccio A, Paillet Y, Chojnacki L, Trentanovi G, Campagnaro T, Burrascano S, Sitzia T (2026). Bird response to forest structure and composition and implications for sustainable mountain forest management. iForest 19: 18-27. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4921-018

Academic Editor

Mirko Di Febbraro

Paper history

Received: Jun 06, 2025
Accepted: Dec 16, 2025

First online: Jan 11, 2026
Publication Date: Feb 28, 2026
Publication Time: 0.87 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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