In conclusion we found that populations of farmland bird
species changed in relation to the strength of species’ associations
to particular farmland habitats. Expression of gradients in species’
habitat use was important to explain patterns in bird population
changes and the patterns would be hardly detectable if focusing
solely on farmland species as a whole without
finer habitat
discriminations. Future studies should thus take the
finer habitat
associations of the focal bird species into account. The patterns in
bird population changes corresponded well to land cover changes