The aim of this study was to investigate the role of lake morphometry, emergent vegetation and the surrounding habitat on breeding bird communities. The analysis was based on the published data covering breeding bird communities of 18 lakes in Western Poland. Seven habitat variables were used in the analysis: lake area, length of shore line, maximum depth, area of rushes, length of shoreline covered by emergent vegetation, length of shoreline covered by forest and presence of islands. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that most of the variation in the total bird species richness was explained by the length of shoreline covered by emergent vegetation. The number of water bird species was predicted by the lake area, since the number of reed and bush birds was dependent on the area of rushes. The most important factors determining the total number of pairs were the lake area and the area of rushes. The number of pairs of water birds was dependent on the lake area and the maximum depth. The density of water birds was negatively correlated with the area of rushes and positively with the lake area. The number of pairs of water birds was statistically higher on lakes with islands than on those without. The abundance of reed and bush birds correlated positively with the area of rushes, hence the density was dependent on the maximum depth and the area of rushes. There was no effect of shoreline covered by forest on the abundance of studied groups of birds.
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