Recovery of the bird population within pine forests after the catastrophic fires in 2010

Process of bird population restoration after fires was investigated in two protected areas in the Volga river basin in central Russia. Anthropogenic pressure in Kerzhensky and Mordovsky nature reserves is very low, it made possible to discover some characteristics of the process of bird population restoration in reference environment. The counts were carried out both in the affected areas of the reserves, and in unaffected parts. The studied area was in its five year after the fire. Dynamics of post fire bird population restoration and its dependence on both the age and history of the original ecosystems were investigated. The authors present the results of dominant species analysis and information about their distribution in the investigated natural reserves. The authors show peculiarities and proportions of ecological groups of birds in the studied territories as well as their proportion. The influence of hydrological parameters on bird communities composition was investigated, it turned out that post fire partial inundation leads to increase of waders of Gallinago and Tringa genera. Species diversity of bird communities in affected areas was considered. Using Pielou’s index it was found that species evenness remained relatively high, i.e. no significant increase of dominance was observed after the fires. The authors analyzed the composition of ornitocomplexes in terms of different faunistic groups.