Peat swamp forest is an important refuge for biodiversity in Southeast Asia and is now becoming a target of exploitation. The scarcity of information on avifauna and ecology of birds in peat swamp forests prevents understanding of the effects of land use change on avifauna. In this study, we describe the bird assemblages in habitats with different land uses by comparing species richness, community composition, and feeding guild patterns in Bukit Batu, Indonesia. Bird assemblages in natural peat swamp forests (NPF), high‐maintenance industrial acacia plantations (planted acacia forest, PAF), low‐maintenance rubber plantations (jungle rubber forest, JRF), and village areas (VIL) were studied using a fixed‐radius point‐count method. Of the 95 species observed, 45, 20, 35, and 48 species were observed in NPF, PAF, JRF, and VIL, respectively. Estimated species richness was the highest in NPF, followed by VIL, JRF, and PAF. NPF had the highest species diversity and β‐diversity, more endangered species, and a distinctive species composition characterized by fly‐catching insectivores. The relative conservation value of PAF was notably low, particularly compared with JRF. The avifauna in VIL was characterized by more generalists that favor open spaces and therefore is not considered an important habitat for forest‐dependent birds that are of conservation concern. Our results indicate that NPF has irreplaceable value for bird diversity conservation, but low‐maintenance rubber plantations were home to several forest‐dependent species and partially supported bird diversity, particularly compared with high‐maintenance acacia plantations.

The biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia indicates an urgent need for long-term monitoring, which is lacking. Much attention is being directed toward bird diversity monitoring using remote sensing, based on relation to forest structure. However, few studies have utilized space-borne active microwave remote sensing, which has considerable advantages in terms of repetitive observations over tropical areas. Here, we evaluate threatened bird occurrence from L-band satellite data explaining forest structure in Sumatra, Indonesia. First, we identified L-band parameters with strong correlations with the forest layer structure, defined as forest floor, understory, and canopy layers. Then, we analyzed the correlation between threatened bird occurrence and L-band parameters identified as explaining forest structure. The results reveal that several parameters can represent the layers of forest floor, understory, and canopy. Subsequent statistical analysis elucidated that forest-dependent and threatened bird species exhibit significant positive correlations with the selected L-band parameters explaining forest floor and understory. Our results highlight the potential of applying microwave satellite remote sensing to evaluate bird diversity through forest structure estimation, although a more comprehensive study is needed to strengthen our findings.

Tropical peatlands have increasingly been targeted for logging or conversion to plantations in recent years. Tropical peatlands are unique ecosystems rich in biodiversity, but they have not attracted as much researcher attention as tropical forests, for example. There is still limited understanding of the ecological significance of peatland disturbance, or of the ecological resilience of peatland ecosystems. This study focuses on birds as indicator species in peatland ecologies. It compares bird communities in peatlands and non-peat lowlands in terms of: (1) species richness; (2) feeding guilds; and (3) responses to disturbance. Our research team analyzed bird communities in peatlands under several different land uses in Riau in comparison to those living in non-peat lowlands in Sumatra Island. We found that species richness in natural forests was lower in peatlands than in non-peat lowlands. The Jackknife estimator of species richness was 77.2 in natural forests on peatland, whereas on non-peat lowland, it was 114.8 and 241. Compared to non-peat lowland forests, the number of terrestrial insectivore and woodpeckers was lower in peatlands. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed that the bird community composition in peatland forests is unique compared to non-peat lowland forests, as they showed completely different lines of avifauna. Nevertheless, avifauna in disturbed sites on peatland were close to avifauna in disturbed non-peat lowland sites, which indicates that the disturbance of peatland would lead to homogenization of avifauna and loss of uniqueness, which in turn, leads to loss of biodiversity. Bird community composition in peatlands was very sensitive to land use change. Shifts in the community composition along the disturbance, as measured by Euclidean distances in the NMDS plot between each disturbed habitat and natural forest, were greater in peatland than in non-peat lowland. Although our knowledge and data of peatland ecologies are limited, it seems likely that certain peatland avifauna can only survive in natural peat swamp forest.