Breeding and population parameters of robins in a woodland remnant in northern New South Wales, Australia

Debus, Stephen

doi:10.1071/mu04013

Cited by 21 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…These general trends are similarly reflected in other studies (BirdLife Australia 2015a, 2015b, although historical declines have been recorded in the Queensland Brigalow Belt (Woinarski & Catterall 2004) and some declines have been noted in northern New South Wales (Reid 1999;Debus 2006;Stevens & Watson 2013). …”

Section: Study Species -Eastern Yellow Robinsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…The need for greater territory defence can elevate stress levels (Zuri et al 1998). Additionally, home ranges are compressed when territories abut each other (Debus 2006) which would reduce the foraging range of the resident pair. While we did not measure robin population densities per se, we did observe that most of the robins with H:L ratios at the upper end of the range had one or more neighbouring territories in close proximity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are sedentary birds that maintain a home range of approximately 5-6 ha (Higgins & Peter 2002;Debus 2006). Breeding occurs from July to January with two to three clutches laid per year, but tends to taper off from October (Higgins & Peter 2002).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This sedentary species maintains a year-round home range of 10-12 ha in size in the eucalypt woodlands of New South Wales, although ranges compressed to 5-6 ha when neighbouring territories were present (Higgins & Peter 2002;Debus 2006) and have been recorded as small as 0.8-2.0 ha (Marchant 1987). Initial estimates indicated that robins in the brigalow woodlands in the study region occupied home ranges of about 5-6 ha (Anita Cosgrove, unpublished data).…”

Section: Study Species -Eastern Yellow Robinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although these robins are considered to be common and have a Red List status of Least Concern, their populations have declined in parts of Victoria and New South Wales (Debus 2006;Stevens & Watson 2013;BirdLife Australia 2015b). This species is sensitive to both patch area and patch 59 isolation in agricultural regions (Barrett et al 1994;Watson et al 2001;Watson et al 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Cosgrove¹

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Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the leading causes of faunal population declines.Substantial effort has been invested in identifying how these landscape changes are related to population parameters. However, to effectively mitigate declines, we must understand the underlying mechanisms impacted by landscape change. Woodland-dependent avian insectivores seem particularly vulnerable, and decline at rates disproportionately greater than other foraging guilds. This pattern suggests that reduced food availability in less-wooded landscapes may be a contributing factor. However, the evidence supporting this hypothesis is sparse. I adopted a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the mechanisms driving population changes of an avian insectivore in highly-modified landscapes by integrating physiological indices with measures of prey availability and landscape structure. First, I presented a framework for conceptualising how the spatiotemporal scale of fragmentation influences the mechanisms impacting populations. I then used the eastern yellow robin (Eopsaltria australis) in the Brigalow Belt South bioregion of southern Queensland to test the importance of local and landscape factors on robin site occupancy, prey density, and robin condition. I also investigated whether an index of chronic stress could be used to predict changes to robin occurrence and identify potential threats to the population. I concluded this work by conducting a supplementary feeding experiment to determine whether food availability was causing the variation in robin condition. A pilot study conducted in the study region four years earlier found that robins were more physiologically stressed (had higher heterophil:lymphocyte ratios) in sites with less woodland in the surrounding landscape, but site occupancy was unrelated to woodland cover. Re-examining the same study system, I established that woodland cover was now the strongest predictor of iii occupancy. While woodland cover at a local scale (within 500 m) was important for robin persistence, woodland cover at a broader scale relevant to dispersal movements (within 5 km) was not. While my stress index could not accurately predict the precise locations of future extirpations, patterns of stress indices (birds were more stressed where woodland cover was lower) did foreshadow a change to the pattern of occurrence. Extirpations from sites with low levels of woodland cover were balanced by colonisations of more-wooded sites. Surprisingly, I found that arthropod prey density was greater at sites that had less surrounding woodland. This result was primarily driven by a large number of Formicidae (ants). However, Formicidae have low nutritional value and once they were excluded from the results, soil moisture, not woodland cover, became the primary determinant of arthropod density. I predicted that robin condition would be strongly associated with arthropod density, but this was not the case. Instead, robins had elevated stress levels at sites with apparently more-favourable...

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Section: Study Species -Eastern Yellow Robinsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Species -Eastern Yellow Robinmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Cosgrove¹

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Estimating density of forest bats and their long‐term trends in a climate refuge

Law

Brassil

Proud³

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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For many species, estimating density is challenging, but it is important for conservation planning and understanding the functional role of species. Bats play key ecological roles, yet little is known about their free-ranging density. We used a long-term banding study of four species caught in an extensively forested climate refuge and spatial capture-recapture models (SCR) to estimate density and its change over time.Between 1999 and 2020, there were 3671 captures of four bat species, which were all edge-space foragers. Recaptures represented 16% (n = 587) of all captures, of which 89 were between-trap-cluster movements. Closed spatial mark-recapture models es-

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Distribution and individual condition reveal a hierarchy of habitat suitability for an area-sensitive passerine

et al. 2012

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Breeding and population parameters of robins in a woodland remnant in northern New South Wales, Australia

Cited by 21 publications

References 27 publications

Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Estimating density of forest bats and their long‐term trends in a climate refuge

Distribution and individual condition reveal a hierarchy of habitat suitability for an area-sensitive passerine

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