A bird community of lowland rain forest in New Guinea. 2. Seasonality

Abstract

Only nineteen out of ninety-six regularly observed species of birds in a rainforest site in New Guinea showed significant periodical changes in abundance. Two rails and two pittas decreased in the dry season, perhaps because the hard ground hindered their feeding. A wren-warbler and a rail responded to man-made changes in habitat.Aswift shifted its roosting sites periodically. Six species of lorikeets and two species of fruit-doves and one pigeon flu tuated in abundance in relation to the flowering and fruiting of trees. Three species of insectivores, probably from Australia, visited in the austral winter.

Arboreal carnivores and mixed feeders tended to breed in the dry season, ground-feeding carnivores and granivores in the wet season and frugivores bred throughout the year. Breeding success was generally low (3 out of 24 open-nests, and 11 out of 14 hole nests were successful).