Field margins as habitats for game.

Abstract

Several game species make considerable use of field-margin habitats, in particular grey partridges, red-legged partridges, pheasants and hares. Generally speaking, field margins play a multiple role for these animals: they provide cover for nesting or shelter, they provide brood-rearing areas and they provide food. This paper briefly reviews current knowledge about such use, and presents results from recent work on nest-site selection by grey partridges. It highlights the features that the animals seek out preferentially, and discusses the implications in terms of integrating field-margin management with modern crop husbandry and EU regulations.