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Abstract
Riparian forests support diverse songbird communities. Many species that breed in riparian forests are considered area sensitive, meaning that they are usually not found in areas less than 100 hectares. Neotropical migrants make up a large portion of this group. This research attempted to identify relationships between stream and valley characteristics and associated riparian bird communities. We selected forty sites in the Piedmont region of Georgia, which varied in channel and floodplain characteristics. Songbird counts were conducted from May to June of 2000 and 2001 using transect counts.|Using Canonical Correspondence Analysis and Logistic Regression we attempted to determine which variables were most strongly correlated with the songbird community. We found that riparian songbird communities are generally unresponsive to stream and floodplain geomorphology. Stream order is also generally unimportant to the bird community. Large and small order streams play an equally important role in providing habitat to riparian songbirds.