September
19, 2018, American
Ornithological Society
The
adoption of "silvopastures"—incorporating trees into pastureland—can
provide habitat for forest bird species and improve connectivity in landscapes
fragmented by agriculture. But how do silvopastures measure up to natural
forest habitat? New research from The Condor: Ornithological
Applications shows that birds in silvopasture forage less efficiently than
those in forest fragments but offers suggestions for how silvopasture habitat
could be improved.
The
University of Florida's Bryan Tarbox and his colleagues observed the foraging
and flocking behavior of insect-eating birds in silvopastures on farms in the
Colombian Andes between 2013 and 2015. They found that silvopastures were less
structurally complex than forest fragments,
with fewer and smaller trees, a sparser understory, and
less diversity of tree species. Birds in
silvopastures attacked insects less often, were less selective about where they
foraged, and were less likely to join mixed-species flocks. Flock members
attacked prey more frequently than solitary birds in forest fragments, but not
in silvopastures, suggesting that something about silvopasture habitat negated
the benefits of joining a flock.
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