Living fences are used by farmers for different purposes and provide several services to the environment. In addition to their well-known functions, living fences could also restore the connectivity of the degraded agricultural landscape by acting as linear extensions of remaining forest fragments. In order to test this assumption, an experiment was carried out in the region of Esparza, Costa Rica, to determine the usage of living fences adjacent to forest fragments by bird species. Three living fence treatments and one forest transect were selected in five farms that bordered forest fragments. The fences were classified as connected, intermediate, or distant from the forest border. Bird observations were conducted using point counts, and trees in fences were characterized by their structure and species composition. Bird species composition changed as a function of distance to the forest patch. Differences in bird species composition were significant between fence treatments and forest control transects, but not between living fences. However, bird species richness, number of bird individuals and Shannon Diversity indices showed no significant differences between secondary forest patches and living fences. This could be explained by the variability in living fence structure and composition. The results also showed that tree species, crown diameter and diameter at breast height are significant variables associated with the number of birds and different bird species using fences as habitat or to move through the landscape. These results suggest that living fences cannot replace natural habitats, but that they can be managed to enhance their capacity to host larger bird communities, increase the connectivity of the fragmented landscape, and ensure the viability of many forest, generalist and savanna bird species.© 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.