Roger Giller queried the position of birdlife in northern hemisphere pine
forests, specifically mentioning natural pine forests.
A number of bird species and families are found in northern hemisphere pine
forests, including several who have specifically adapted to eat the seeds in
pine cones. The most famous of those is the crossbill family (including Common
Crossbill, Parrot Crossbill and Scottish Crossbill) that have evolved powerful
cross over beaks specifically adapted to extract the seed in large pine cones.
Amongst the birdlife found in pine forests include the Crested Tit, Pine
Grosbeak, several species of Corvids and of the Owl, Grouse and Woodpecker
families. Words such as "Pine" (e.g. Pine Grosbeak, Pine Siskin) and "Spruce"
(e.g. Spruce Grouse) in the names of some species tell you the habitat in which
the bird is dominantly found.
Different species of pine will attract a different mix of species, for example
forests dominated by larch species, that have small cones, will attract
different species to the large cone bearing pines. Here in the UK, the remnants
of the great Caledonian Pine Forests are a mix of tree species, including birch
and oak, but dominated by the Scots Pine. This forest, in the rocky Scottish
Highlands, is almost exclusively the home of the endemic Scottish Crossbill
and, in the UK, of the Crested Tit and Capercaille. Many other bird species
are also found in this forest.
Pine plantations are often monocultures of one pine species, deliberately grown
close together to prevent side light and force straight growth and minimal side
branches. Minimal plant diversity, minimal insect and bird diversity. Fairly
simple cause and effect situation.
Angus Innes.
Information in this message may be confidential and may be legally privileged.
If you have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender
immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else.
We have checked this email and its attachments for viruses. But you should
still check any attachment before opening it.
We may have to make this message and any reply to it public if asked to under
the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act or for litigation. Email
messages and attachments sent to or from any Environment Agency address may
also be accessed by someone other than the sender or recipient, for business
purposes.
To report this email as SPAM,
please forward it to
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
