Implications of deforestation for the abundance of restricted-range bird species in a Costa Rican cloud-forest

Abstract

SummaryCentral America is a region of great avian diversity, and the highlands of Costa Rica and Panama are particularly rich in endemic bird species. Continuing deforestation has destroyed large parts of the birds' natural habitats in this region. The ability of birds to use non-forest habitats will ultimately determine their vulnerability to further deforestation, and knowledge of their habitat use is therefore essential in planning conservation strategies. We examined the effects of deforestation on the abundance of restricted-range bird species in the southern Costa Rican part of the Talamanca mountain range. We used line-transect distance sampling to obtain densities in forest and non-forest habitats. Most (22/28) restricted-range species were recorded in forest and non-forest. Of 28 restricted-range species, 13 species showed a clear preference for forest and 8 for non-forest, and total numbers were one-and-a-half times higher as high in forest compared with non-forest. Of the 10 most common species, one was more abundant in non-forest and seven were more abundant in forest. We conclude that forest is the primary habitat for the majority of the restricted-range avifauna, and their dependence on forest makes them particularly vulnerable to deforestation. Adequate protection of the forests in these mountains is therefore the best assurance of the long-term survival of these birds.

Identification of Aves, Herpetofauna and Arthropods in Miangas Island (Indonesia), the borderline of Wallacea ecoregion

“…Mangrove forest is a habitat for birds and other wildlife. It is in accordance with Oostra et al (2008) that the existence of the forest gives very positive effect on the abundance of bird species. According to Kuswanda (2010), plant species composition of the forests is the most influential factor on the index of diversity, abundance, and density of birds.…”

Effect of fragmentation on the Costa Rican dry forest avifauna

“…Bird communities undergo notable changes in composition and abundance soon after large forests are reduced into smaller patches ( Bierregaard & Stouffer, 1997 ; Oostra, Gomes & Nijman, 2008 ). In some cases fragmentation could increase bird species richness and the abundance of bird species ( Azevedo-Ramos, De Carvalho Jr & Do Amaral, 2006 ) as birds aggregate in the remaining available forests patches.…”

Bird sensitivity to disturbance as an indicator of forest patch conditions: An issue in environmental assessments

“…Also, the ubiquitous usage of Parker's classification in academic studies in the Neotropics may be an additional reason for the continuing usage of this metric in EAs. Since its publication, this parameter has been used in many studies, as an untreated dependent variable, associated with other parameters to test the effects of fragmentation and landscape features in bird assemblages (e.g., Petit and Petit, 2003;Uezu et al, 2005;Barlow et al, 2006;Edwards 2006, Feeley et al, 2007;Hansbauer et al, 2008b;Lees and Peres, 2008;Martensen et al, 2008Martensen et al, , 2012Ferraz et al, 2012;Banks-Leite et al, 2013), as a parameter to support discussions about human disturbance effects on birds and habitat conditions (e.g., Woltmann, 2003;Oostra et al, 2008;Giacomo and Casenave, 2010;Lobo-Araújo et al, 2013) and to characterize the bird communities at a given site (e.g., Matlock Jr et al, 2002; Tejeda-Cruz Franz et al, 2010;Arendt et al, 2012;Lyra-Neves et al, 2012). However, being the most used ecological indicator in the scientific literature does not mean that it is suitable for all types of environmental assessment (Dale and Beyeler, 2001;Carignan and Villard, 2002).…”