Beyond incidence data: Assessing bird habitat use in indigenous working landscapes through the analysis of behavioral variation among land uses

Abstract

Evaluating the impact of anthropogenic habitats on wildlife has been a major topic of research and conservation concern. However, most knowledge relies on incidence data, masking some of the effects that human land uses have on animal behavior. We explored the use of avian behaviors for measuring the impact of an indigenous working landscape on biodiversity. Specifically, we examined how land uses (i.e. conservation forests, selective forestry management plots, forests sanitation areas, urban-cropfield sites) in a Neotropical working landscape affect bird behaviors (i.e. feeding, perching, preening, fighting, breeding). We estimated and compared the proportion of times that we recorded birds performing each behavior across land uses, seasons, and avian groups. Moreover, we estimated species richness for our focal bird assemblages and land uses, which we compared with the behavioral patterns. Results revealed that species richness and behaviors provide different pieces of information. According to our estimates of species richness, urban-cropfield areas harbored the greatest number of species during both winter and summer for most of the avian groups, including forest birds. However, behavioral analyses showed that forestry plots are particularly important for resident forest birds, frugivores, and insectivores since these bird groups exhibited high frequencies of feeding, perching, and breeding behaviors at these sites. Urban-cropfield specialists and migrants showed low frequencies of behaviors in all forested sites. Urban-cropfield areas benefited granivores and nectarivores, a pattern that was likely driven by increased availability of grains and nectar. Our results support the use of behavior for evaluating the impact of anthropogenic habitats on animals, identifying supplementary habitats for wildlife, and assessing the sustainability of working landscapes.