Habitat Barriers to Movement of Understory Birds in Fragmented South-Temperate Rainforest

Sieving, Kathryn E.; Willson, Mary F.; Santo, Toni L. De

doi:10.2307/4088877

Cited by 137 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In addition, we may be underestimating the importance of forested routes to forest specialists more generally, because there are many tropical species that are much more forest dependent than our forest specialist. Although the antshrikes are a forest specialist in this environment, terrestrial insectivores, usually from the families Formicariidae and Rhinocryptidae, are very poor fliers and are reported to be some of the most sensitive to habitat fragmentation (Sieving et al 1996, Laurance et al 2004.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

Gillies

Beyer

Clair

2011

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. The persistence of forest-dependent species in fragmented landscapes is fundamentally linked to the movement of individuals among subpopulations. The paths taken by dispersing individuals can be considered a series of steps built from individual route choices. Despite the importance of these fine-scale movement decisions, it has proved difficult to collect such data that reveal how forest birds move in novel landscapes. We collected unprecedented route information about the movement of translocated forest birds from two species in the highly fragmented tropical dry forest of Costa Rica. In this pasture-dominated landscape, forest remains in patches or riparian corridors, with lesser amounts of living fencerows and individual trees or ''stepping stones.'' We used step selection functions to quantify how route choice was influenced by these habitat elements. We found that the amount of risk these birds were willing to take by crossing open habitat was context dependent. The forest-specialist Barred Antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus) exhibited stronger selection for forested routes when moving in novel landscapes distant from its territory relative to locations closer to its territory. It also selected forested routes when its step originated in forest habitat. It preferred steps ending in stepping stones when the available routes had little forest cover, but avoided them when routes had greater forest cover. The forest-generalist Rufous-naped Wren (Campylorhynchus rufinucha) preferred steps that contained more pasture, but only when starting from non-forest habitats. Our results showed that forested corridors (i.e., riparian corridors) best facilitated the movement of a sensitive forest specialist through this fragmented landscape. They also suggested that stepping stones can be important in highly fragmented forests with little remaining forest cover. We expect that naturally dispersing birds and species with greater forest dependence would exhibit even stronger selection for forested routes than did the birds in our experiments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

Gillies

Beyer

Clair

2011

Ecological Applications

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“…Indeed, others have reported that habitat specialist species are less likely to cross gaps than generalists (24,25,28,29). Terrestrial insectivores in particular seem to be sensitive to fragmentation (12,30) partly because they are unwilling to cross forest gaps (12,(31)(32)(33). This covariance would be expected if animals select travel routes with the same criteria they use to select habitat for foraging and other activities (34).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Riparian corridors enhance movement of a forest specialist bird in fragmented tropical forest

Gillies

Clair

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

155

116

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Riparian corridors and fencerows are hypothesized to increase the persistence of forest animals in fragmented landscapes by facilitating movement among suitable habitat patches. This function may be critically important for forest birds, which have declined dramatically in fragmented habitats. Unfortunately, direct evidence of corridor use has been difficult to collect at landscape scales and this limits support for corridors in conservation planning. Using telemetry and handheld GPS units, we examined the movement of forest birds by translocating territorial individuals of barred antshrikes (Thamnophilus doliatus; a forest specialist) and rufous-naped wrens (Campylorhynchus rufinucha; a forest generalist) 0.7-1.9 km from their territories in the highly fragmented tropical dry forest of Costa Rica. In each translocation, the directly intervening habitat comprised 1 of 3 treatments: forested riparian corridor, linear living fencerow, or open pasture. Antshrikes returned faster and with greater success in riparian corridors relative to pasture treatments. This species also traveled more directly in riparian corridor treatments, detoured to use forested routes in the other 2 treatments, and did not use fencerows even when they led directly to their home territories. By contrast, wrens were more likely to use fencerows when returning, and return time and success were equivalent among the 3 treatments. Both species crossed fewer gaps in tree cover during riparian corridor treatments than in fencerow or pasture treatments. We conclude that antshrikes, which may be representative of other forest specialists, use forested corridors for movement in this landscape and that fencerows are avoided as movement conduits.animal movement ͉ Campylorhynchus rufinucha ͉ habitat connectivity ͉ hedgerows ͉ Thamnophilus doliatus

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“…Taped playbacks of bird songs or calls offer particular promise for providing this motivation in avian studies. For example, species-specific territorial songs have been used to quantify the willingness of forest birds to enter different matrix types (Sieving et al 1996) and to cross gaps of open area up to 100 m adjacent to their territories (Rail et al 1997). Desrochers and Hannon (1997) generalized this method to nonterritorial situations by using recordings of the mobbing calls of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) to study the postbreeding dispersal of several forest species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter Responses of Forest Birds to Habitat Corridors and Gaps

Clair¹,

Bélisle²,

Desrochers³

et al. 1998

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Forest fragmentation and habitat loss may disrupt the movement or dispersal of forest-dwelling birds. Despite much interest in the severity of these effects and ways of mitigating them, little is known about actual movement patterns in different habitat types. We studied the movement of wintering resident birds, lured by playbacks of mobbing calls, to compare the willingness of forest birds to travel various distances in continuous forest, along narrow corridors (fencerows), and across gaps in forest cover. We also quantified the willingness of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) to cross gaps when alternative forested detour routes were available. All species were less likely to respond to the calls as distance increased to 200 m, although White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) and Hairy Woodpeckers (Picoides villosus) were generally less likely to respond than chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers (P. pubescens). Chickadees were as likely to travel in corridors as in continuous forest, but were less likely to cross gaps as the gap distance increased. The other species were less willing to travel in corridors and gaps relative to forest, and the differences among habitats also increased with distance. For chickadees, gap-crossing decisions in the presence of forested detours varied over the range of distances that we tested, and were primarily influenced by detour efficiency (the length of the shortcut relative to the available detour). Over short distances, birds used forested detours, regardless of their efficiency. As absolute distances increased, birds tended to employ larger shortcuts in the open when detour efficiency was low or initial distance in the open was high, but they limited their distance from the nearest forest edge to 25 m. Thus, chickadees were unwilling to cross gaps of > 50 m when they had forested alternatives, yet they sometimes crossed gaps as large as 200 m when no such choice existed. Our results suggest that the presence of corridors enhanced the movement of some, but not all, forest birds, and that even chickadees, which were less sensitive to gap width, preferred not to venture far from forest cover.

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Habitat Barriers to Movement of Understory Birds in Fragmented South-Temperate Rainforest

Cited by 137 publications

References 17 publications

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

Fine-scale movement decisions of tropical forest birds in a fragmented landscape

Riparian corridors enhance movement of a forest specialist bird in fragmented tropical forest

Winter Responses of Forest Birds to Habitat Corridors and Gaps

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