Birds of Bittsevskiy les

The land now occupied by the forest has seen marked changes in use. Farmland covered most of the area during the first half of the 20th century; in 1941, a substantial part of the woodland was felled to make defensive lines across a direction considered vulnerable to tank attack. Extensive planting of broad-leaved trees began in 1944. Trenches, communication trenches and anti-tank ditches remain in the forest. Older settlement history is marked by seven groups of Vyatichi burial mounds from the 11th–12th centuries, which served as cemeteries for small settlements, and by the remains of two settlements in the central forest dating to the 13th–15th centuries. Estates began appearing here in the late 16th century; ponds and old trees in their grounds are reminders of some of them.

In the 1990s, nesting by the Northern goshawk was recorded near Lysaya Gora, along the valleys of Chertanovka and Gorodnya. In 2022, a common buzzard was occasionally recorded flying along the Chertanovka channel, while kestrels were more often recorded at Lysaya Gora. Great tits, Eurasian nuthatches, Eurasian blue tits, fieldfares and hooded crows have also been recorded nearby.