Variation in abundance and habitat relationship of three understory insectivorous birds in a disturbed landscape of Neotropical dry forest of Colombia
Date
2020-09-02Author
Loaiza, Camilo
Montenegro, Olga L.
King, David
Spínola, Manuel
Palacio, Lilibeth Arinda
Rudas, Agustín
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Background: Evaluating relationships between avian populations and their habitat is important for understanding
the biology of these species and for management decisions that improve the efectiveness of restoration practices.
We investigated how habitat variation along a disturbance gradient afected the abundance of three insectivorous
bird species, White-bellied Antbird (Myrmeciza longipes), Barred Antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus), and Pale-breasted
Spinetail (Synallaxis albescens) in a Neotropical dry forest remnant in central Colombia.
Methods: The study area, which is located in Magdalena Valley, is under ecological restoration after the construction of the “El Quimbo” hydroelectric dam, with a gradient of habitat conditions, from relatively advanced secondary
growth to recently disturbed areas. We conducted bird surveys and quantifed the habitat conditions from June 2018
to June 2019. We compared the relative abundance of the birds among the three zones with increasing disturbance
and modeled the relationship between the bird abundance with the micro- and landscape-habitat conditions, with
Poisson generalized linear model regression.
Results: The relative abundance of the three bird species varied according to the habitat features and disturbance
level. The abundance of White-bellied Antbirds was higher in forests and thickets than shrubland fragments; Barred
Antshrike was more abundant in shrubland and thickets than in forest fragments, and Pale-breasted Spinetail had the
highest abundance in shrubland and the lowest in forest fragments. The abundance of both White-bellied Antbird
and Pale-breasted Spinetail did not difer among zones with diferent levels of disturbance, while the abundance of
Barred Antshrike decreased in zones with more disturbance.
Conclusions: There were signifcant diferences in the habitat relationships of the three understory insectivorous
species along the disturbance gradient, although these species were within the same trophic group. These bird species preferred diferent stages of habitat succession and responded to diferent habitat and landscape features. Increasing forest fragment areas and decreasing the amount of edge would be useful restoration priorities for these and other similar avian species in this study area.
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