| Summary: | The decline of farmland birds is a well-documented phenomenon attributed to the impacts of agricultural intensification. However, the specific mechanisms responsible for population declines in individual species have not yet been satisfactorily elucidated. Most research has focused either on the influence of habitat characteristics or on the food supply. The aim of my thesis was therefore to link these two factors. The study was carried out in an intensively managed farmland of southwestern Slovakia. In the fields of winter wheat, winter rape and maize, I recorded the abundance of birds, namely Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) and Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis), habitat characteristics and food supply. Yellow Wagtail avoided maize fields, but its abundance did not differ among the other crops significantly. However, the number of wagtails varied within fields, as they more often occurred closer to field edges, most likely due more abundant and diverse food supply found near the edges. A positive relationship between the number of wagtails and invertebrate diversity further supports this explanation. Skylark abundance did not vary across the focal crops, but it was negatively affected by the presence of woody plants at the field edge. Neither the abundance nor the diversity of the food supply...
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