The purpose of this study was to measure the avifaunal utilization of abandoned farm houseplaces and selected pine stand monocultures. A further consideration was the influence of houseplaces on the avian composition of adjacent pine stands.
The study was conducted on the Energy Research and Development Administration\u27s Savannah River Plant, South Carolina, during the period April-July, 1976. The study area consisted of five study plots of nine hectares each. Forty-four species were recorded in the area during the study period. Fifteen species were breeding, and 29 were visitants.
Importance value was utilized to determine that the pine warbler (IV = 125.6) and brown-headed nuthatch (120.1) were the two most important species in the managed pine habitat. The Carolina chickadee (114.3) and cardinal (106.5) were the two most important species in the houseplace habitat. These four species comprised 48.3 percent of all individuals recorded.
Avian populations of houseplace-pine stand plots were compared to pine stands without houseplaces using the coefficient of community. The similarity of these two communities was .237 indicating dissimilar avian composition. Breeding bird diversity between the houseplace-pine stand plots and the pine stand without houseplace was significantly different (p\u3c.01). Total bird diversity (breeding and visitant) for the two habitats was also significantly different (p\u3c.05).
Results indicate that houseplaces provided a habitat diversity which attracted bird species not occurring in the pine stands without houseplaces. This was true of breeding birds and visitants. Evaluation of the results suggests that management practices aimed at maintaining or increasing avian diversity in pine regions of the Savannah River Plant incorporate the houseplace concept
