Scientists have long been trying to understand why the Neotropical region holds the highest diversity of birds on Earth. Recently, there has been increased interest in morphological variation between and within species, and in how climate, topography, and anthropogenic pressures may explain and affect phenotypic variation. Because morphological data are not always available for many species at the local or regional scale, we are limited in our understanding of intra‐ and interspecies spatial morphological variation. Here, we present the ATLANTIC BIRD TRAITS, a data set that includes measurements of up to 44 morphological traits in 67,197 bird records from 2,790 populations distributed throughout the Atlantic forests of South America. This data set comprises information, compiled over two centuries (1820–2018), for 711 bird species, which represent 80% of all known bird diversity in the Atlantic Forest. Among the most commonly reported traits are sex (n = 65,717), age (n = 63,852), body mass (n = 58,768), flight molt presence (n = 44,941), molt presence (n = 44,847), body molt presence (n = 44,606), tail length (n = 43,005), reproductive stage (n = 42,588), bill length (n = 37,409), body length (n = 28,394), right wing length (n = 21,950), tarsus length (n = 20,342), and wing length (n = 18,071). The most frequently recorded species are Chiroxiphia caudata (n = 1,837), Turdus albicollis (n = 1,658), Trichothraupis melanops (n = 1,468), Turdus leucomelas (n = 1,436), and Basileuterus culicivorus (n = 1,384). The species recorded in the greatest number of sampling localities are Basileuterus culicivorus (n = 243), Trichothraupis melanops (n = 242), Chiroxiphia caudata (n = 210), Platyrinchus mystaceus (n = 208), and Turdus rufiventris (n = 191). ATLANTIC BIRD TRAITS (ABT) is the most comprehensive data set on measurements of bird morphological traits found in a biodiversity hotspot; it provides data for basic and applied research at multiple scales, from individual to community, and from the local to the macroecological perspectives. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications or teaching and educational activities.

A decline in species number often occurs after forest fragmentation and habitat loss, which usually results in the loss of ecological functions and a reduction in functional diversity in the forest fragments. However, it is uncertain whether these lost ecological functions are consistently maintained throughout continuous forests, and so the importance of these functions in continuous forests remains unknown. Point counts were used to assess both the taxonomic and functional diversity of specialist and generalist birds from sampling in a continuous primary forest compared with forest fragments in order to investigate the responses of these groups to forest fragmentation. We also measured alpha and beta diversity. The responses of specialists and generalists were similar when we assessed all bird species but were different when only passerines were considered. When examining passerines we found lower total taxonomic beta diversity for specialists than for generalists in the continuous forest, while taxonomic beta diversity was higher in the fragmented forest and similar between bird groups. However, total functional beta‐diversity values indicated clearly higher trait regularity in continuous forest for specialists and higher trait regularity in fragments for generalists. Specialists showed significantly higher functional alpha diversity in comparison with generalists in the continuous forest, while both groups showed similar values in fragments. In passerines, species richness and alpha functional diversity of both specialist and generalist were explained by forest connectivity; but, only fragment size explained those parameters for specialist passerines. We suggest that considering subsets of the community with high similarity among species, as passerines, provides a better tool for understanding responses to forest fragmentation. Due to the regularity of specialists in continuous forest, their lost could highly affect functionality in forest fragments.

Restoration practices are designed to reverse the negative effects of human activities on the environment, allowing the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, restoration activities require monitoring the recolonization of faunal assemblages to assess whether ecosystem functions and services performed by them have been recovered. Because of the presumed link between species traits and ecosystem functioning, a potential solution to evaluate restoration efficiency is the grouping of species based on their ecological functions. Here, we review studies on bird assemblages of active restoration sites in Brazil and apply a data-driven approach to group bird species into functional groups using species trait information. We reviewed if studies provided detailed information (e.g., data on species composition and abundance) for comparative analyses and evaluated how restoration time (i.e., how long-ago restoration started) affected the similarity in bird species composition considering three restoration age classes: recent, intermediate, and old. We also tested whether the composition of bird functional groups varies in restoration sites of different age classes. Although we found a small number of studies (n = 8) with birds in restoration areas, we compiled a dataset consisting of 232 bird species from 14 different restoration sites. We found that bird assemblages from recent restoration sites (up to 5 years) were dissimilar to bird assemblages from older restoration sites (over 20 years). Also, older restoration sites had a higher occurrence of more specialist functional groups (e.g., small frugivores birds of superior stratum). Despite the small number of studies, our results reinforce the sensitivity of birds to habitat changes and their potential in indicating restoration efficiency. We argue for the necessity of standardized protocols in the collection and reporting of data on restoration activities, which will improve comparative analysis in theoretical and applied restoration ecology.

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Seasonal variation in tropical and subtropical systems can have different effects on bird species depending on the resources they use and how they use them. However, despite recent research advances, knowledge of the drivers of the presence and abundance of species in different seasons is still limited for most tropical bird species. In these poorly understood systems, examining seasonal changes in species composition from the perspective of traits related to resource use can provide insight into what resources may be driving bird movements between areas throughout the year and what types of species are more subject to seasonality. Here, we explore bird community seasonality in three forest types (dense, semi-deciduous and mixed rainforests) subjected to different climatic conditions in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, the Atlantic Rainforest. We investigated differences between summer and winter in species richness and in the composition of resource-related species traits (diet, foraging strata and substrates) obtained from the literature. The seasonal differences (summer and winter) between forest types were explored in terms of species and trait composition. We found that the main changes that occurred in bird composition between seasons in the southern Atlantic Rainforest were related to species traits such as diet and foraging strata. In general, the proportion of invertivores was higher in winter than in summer, and in the mixed forest, the forest type exposed to the coldest winters, the proportion of frugivores was lower in winter. Furthermore, species with a more varied diet were better represented in the summer. In general, more generalist species were better represented in the forest type subjected to higher seasonal variations in rainfall. Our results revealed seasonal changes in bird community structure that are related to niche occupation and that were more strongly apparent in the forest type subjected to colder winters.