Pine plantations and native forest fragments adjacent to intact forests provide surrogate habitats for birds in an Afrotropical forest landscape

Abstract

Tropical forests harbour 72% of the world's bird species. The changing land uses have fragmented natural forests or replaced them with plantation forests. This sets in an argument as to whether forest fragments and plantations can support birds. We assessed birds in a plantation, fragment and an intact (continuous) Budongo forest, Uganda. We compared bird species composition, diversity and functional traits between the forests and examined their response to habitat characteristics. We sampled birds using 135 point counts along nine transects and assessed habitat characteristics in 90 plots in the fragment and intact forest. We classified bird species according to habitat preference and feeding guild. Bird species composition differed between forests. Bird abundance and richness in plantation and fragment were lower than in intact forest. Forest specialists and insectivores dominated the intact forest. Most birds in the fragment were forest generalists and frugivores. Forest visitors and granivores dominated in the plantation. Trachyphorus purpuratus, Andropadus latirostris and A. curvirostris preferred sites with greater tree height, diameter and many snags, respectively. Bird species abundance and richness declined with increasing tree diameter and increased with snags. Forest specialists preferred sites without climbers. Thus, plantations and fragments close to intact forests provide surrogate habitats for bird conservation.