Bird species richness in artificial plantations and natural forests in a North African agroforestry system: assessment and implications S. Hanane . S. I. Cherkaoui . N. Magri . M. Yassin Received: 30 January 2018 / Accepted: 2 August 2018 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract Watershed tree plantations in Morocco are expanding under the National Watershed Management Plan and thus their value for native fauna and agroforestry system dynamics requires investigation. Using generalized linear mixed models, we assessed the relative value of artificial habitats—olive and eucalypt plantations—over four seasonal periods, by comparing their avifauna richness to those of natural habitats—Thuya forests. Bird species richness depended on both habitat type and season. Our results showed that natural Thuya forests supported higher bird diversity than both olive and eucalypt plantations. Moreover, bird diversity was higher in eucalyptus plantations compared to olive plantations during the winter period, while the opposite trend was observed in autumn. A principal component analysis also revealed a significant positive effect of shrub layer complexity (PC1) in all seasons, habitat artificiality (PC3) in spring, breeding season, and autumn, and tree size (PC2) during winter and autumn. Overall, our findings stress that, in our study area, artificial plantations do not have the same ecological value as the original habitat. We therefore advise restoring native forests rather than reforesting eucalypt species. Research programs should continue in order to assess the impact of conservation actions on biodiversity and determine how this agroforestry system would change under the increasingly detrimental effects of drought. Keywords Birds Á Tetraclinis articulata Á Olea europaea Á Eucalyptus sp. Á Seasonality Á Morocco Introduction Worldwide, forestry and agricultural strategies aim to increase reforestation and agricultural plantations. The overall objectives of these actions are to: (1) decrease rates of deforestation; (2) protect water and soil against erosion; (3) conserve biodiversity; (4) improve wood production and the standard of living of riparian populations; and (5) reduce atmospheric concentra- tions of carbon dioxide (Potter et al. 2007; Reino et al. 2009). Tree plantations have received special attention in the past decade both in Southern Mediterranean (e.g. Proenc ¸a et al. 2010; Calvin ˜o-Cancela et al. 2012) Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-018-0281-z) con- tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. Hanane (&) Á N. Magri Á M. Yassin Forest Research Centre, High Commission for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification, Avenue Omar Ibn Al Khattab, BP 763, 10050 Rabat-Agdal, Morocco e-mail: sdhan333@gmail.com S. I. Cherkaoui Universite ´ Moulay Ismail, Ecole Supe ´rieure de Technologie de Khe ´nifra, BP 170, 54000 Khe ´nifra, Morocco 123 Agroforest Syst https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-018-0281-z