Bird biodiversity in vegetation along unpaved rural roads in Central European farmland

• Roadside vegetation hosts bird biodiversity in Central European farmland. • Bird species richness increases with area and diversity of woody vegetation. • The same patterns apply to the abundance of habitat generalists and forest birds. • Habitat specialists and farmland birds prefer higher representation of fruit plants. • Roadside vegetation did not support birds when woody plants were absent. Although transport infrastructure is often viewed as a threat to biodiversity, it can serve as its refuge by providing habitats being rare in the surrounding landscapes. This is particularly the case of unpaved rural roads that are functional elements of transport networks whose verge vegetation intersects large homogeneous fields. Evidence-based guidance is needed to manage this vegetation to facilitate biodiversity benefits. Here, we investigated birds, widely used biodiversity indicators, along 90 road segments in the farmland of Czechia, a Central European country, in spring 2023. Bird biodiversity was positively related to the area of woody roadside vegetation, but the effect diminished when the woody plants were absent, and the vegetation consisted only of herbs. Woody plant management should be tailored to the specific needs of target species: farmland birds and habitat specialists, i.e., species of the highest conservation concern, benefited from higher woody plant diversity and presence of fruit trees.