Bird communities as bioindicators: The focal species concept in agricultural landscapes

The use of bioindicators as a tool in conservation and landscape ecology projects is becoming more widespread. We suggest objective criteria for selecting suitable focal species to identify important semi-natural elements in agricultural landscapes and provide quality indications at two different spatial scales. At a broad scale, focal species can indicate overall landscape quality, and species abundance data allow an environment suitability map to be drawn. At a local scale, focal species abundances can be related to structural characteristics of landscape elements, thus, providing valuable indications of the most effective locations for restoration projects.