Are cleared reeds Phragmites australis growing inside bush areas good for the stop-over of small birds?

Abstract

Cleared reeds are formations of reeds Phragmites australis growing at different stem density interspersed inside of bush-grass-tree masses in freshwater or brackish waters. Generally, these are considered as the early succession stage of a plant hydro series. The importance for the small-medium birds which uses these formations is huge. This is because the broad masses of reeds are reducing from the past century and birds benefit of the rich invertebrate fauna of these residual sites from the adaptive functional morphology of these birds to cope with these habitats more skillfully than other wetland birds. I summarize the habitat preferences of this vegetation type on some endangered small-medium birds at Western Mediterranean areas.