Seasonal abundance and composition of forest bird communities adjacent to a right-of-way in northern forests USA

Birds on line transects in areas adjacent to a right-of-way (ROW) and in areas not associated with edges were counted in northern Wisconsin over four years and in two seasons to assess effects of an edge an adjacent forest bird species and communities. A repeated measured ANOVA was used to measure differences between edge and reference transects for several community, guild, and individual species parameters. Overall, the distribution of edge birds along edge transects indicated that birds were evenly distributed in the area surveyed, suggesting that effects of the ROW extend at least 200 m into adjacent forest habitat.