Temporal variation in the abundance of two species of thrushes in relation to fruiting phenology in the Atlantic rainforest
Everaldo Rodrigo de Castro A D , Marina Corrêa Côrtes A E F , Luis Navarro B , Mauro Galetti A and Leonor Patrícia C. Morellato C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Laboratório de Biologia da Conservação, Departamento de Ecologia, Grupo de Fenologia de Plantas e Dispersão de Sementes, CP 199, UNESP – Universidade Estadual Paulista, IB, CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
B Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ciencias del Suelo, Campus As Lagoas-Marcosende, Universidad de Vigo, E-36200-Vigo, Spain.
C Laboratório de Fenologia, Departamento de Botânica, Grupo de Fenologia de Plantas e Dispersão de Sementes, CP 199, UNESP – Universidade Estadual Paulista, IB, CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
D Present address: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Rondônia – IFRO, CEP 76993-000, Colorado do Oeste, RO, Brazil.
E Present address: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, 10th floor Schermerhorn Extension, 1200 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA.
F Corresponding author. Email: mcc2149@columbia.edu
Emu 112(2) 137-148 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU11023
Submitted: 19 March 2011 Accepted: 30 December 2011 Published: 22 May 2012
Abstract
When fruit resources in tropical forests are scarce, frugivorous birds might track fruiting by expanding their home-ranges or by moving. We tested whether the abundance of the Yellow-legged Thrush (Turdus flavipes) and White-necked Thrush (T. albicollis) is correlated with the fruiting of the dominant palm tree (Juçara Palm, Euterpe edulis) and fruiting within the tree community as a whole in three Atlantic rainforest types (restinga, lowland, and premontane forests) in south-eastern Brazil over 3 years. We monitored abundance of the two species of thrush and their consumption of fruit, and fruiting patterns of Juçara Palms and the tree community as a whole. Juçara Palms accounted for 45 and 28% of the feeding bouts of Yellow-legged Thrush and White-necked Thrush. The abundance of Yellow-legged Thrushes was positively correlated with fruiting of Juçara Palms, but not to fruiting of the tree community, in all forest types. White-necked Thrushes ate a greater diversity of fruits and its abundance was neither correlated with fruiting of Juçara Palms or to fruiting of the tree community. We suggest that fruits of Juçara Palms constitute a paramount food resource for Yellow-legged Thrushes and may influence movement and abundance of the species in different vegetation types and elevations in the Atlantic rainforest, whereas White-necked Thrushes employ other feeding strategies to persist in periods of fruit scarcity.
Additional keywords: altitudinal migration, birds coexistence, diet, frugivory, fruit availability, resource tracking.
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