Natural grasslands and shrublands are rare in New York. As people altered the landscape to establish farms and villages, birds that use open habitats began to flourish. Today these birds largely depend on agricultural and other human-maintained areas.

Birds that are adapted to live in grasslands and the shrubby edges of forests are the species most familiar to us. Farms and suburban neighborhoods provide the fields, thickets, and open woodlands favored by many nesting songbirds and raptors.