Population trends of forest birds in Czechia

Currently, most scientific attention focused on bird population trends is centred on birds in the agricultural landscape. Forest bird research, on the other hand, is given far less space, despite the fact that forests in Europe often form a substantial part of the landscape in some parts. Moreover, it is undergoing drastic changes throughout Europe, and especially in the Czech Republic. In the second half of the 20th century, their quality deteriorated due to air pollution, later regenerated, but other additional challenges have emerged, such as global climate change and epidemics of wood-destroying insects. It is therefore possible to assume their fundamental influence on forest bird populations. However, most of the work examining the effects of the forest environment and forest management on bird populations is only very local, limited to ecologically valuable, and therefore quite specific, habitats, or covering only a small number of bird species. However, data on the evolution of forest birds vary across Europe. In Finland, for example, forest birds are declining, while in neighbouring Sweden the trend is the opposite. In this study, I aim to better map what characteristics of forests affect specific species of birds, in research conducted throughout the Czech Republic. I decided to explore..