Evidence for facilitation among avian army‐ant attendants: specialization and species associations across elevations

Abstract

Mixed‐species assemblages can involve positive and negative interactions, but uncertainty about high‐value patchy resources can increase the value of information sharing among heterospecific co‐foragers. I sampled species composition of bird‐flocks attending army‐ant raids in three adjacent elevation zones in Costa Rica, across multiple years, to test for positive and negative associations among raid‐attending bird species. My goal was to test whether the most frequent and specialized raid‐attending species showed evidence of facilitating or excluding other bird species. I quantified elevational variation in avian community composition at raids, then asked whether species composition was associated with variation in flock characteristics (flock size and species richness). I identified the most frequent raid‐attending species (those that attended raids most frequently relative to their mist‐net capture rates), and bird species that performed specialized army ant‐following behavior (bivouac‐checking, which allows birds to memorize and track mobile army‐ant colonies). There was significant turnover of bird species among zones (including the frequent and specialized attendants); patterns of species overlap suggested a gradual transition from a Pacific‐slope to an Atlantic‐slope raid‐attending bird fauna. Raid‐attendance frequency was positively correlated with bivouac‐checking behavior. With few exceptions, the most frequent raid‐attending bird species, and the bivouac‐checking species, also participated in the most species‐rich flocks. High species‐gregariousness suggests many of the frequently attending and/or bivouac‐checking species functioned as core flock members. However, some bird species pairs were significantly negatively associated at raids. Despite species turnover, per‐flock numbers of birds at raids did not differ among geographic zones, but flocks on the Pacific‐slope were heavier because larger bodied bird species attended raids. Previous studies showed that the size (biomass) of bird‐flocks corresponds to the amount of food the birds kleptoparasitize from ant raids, and the heavier Pacific‐slope bird‐flocks could have greater negative kleptoparasitic impacts.