Home range and habitat use by Suiriri affinis and Suiriri islerorum (Aves: Tyrannidae) in the central Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

We studied the home range and habitat use of Suiriri affinis (Campo Suiriri) and the recently described Suiriri islerorum (Chapada Flycatcher). The study was conducted in Cerrado areas (a tropical savannah) of Estação Ecológica de Águas Emendadas, central Brazil. We followed banded birds from January 2003 to January 2004 and calculated their home range by the minimum convex polygon method. The mean home range size was 14.0 ha for S. affinis (n = 12) and 11.2 ha for Suiriri islerorum (n = 11). S. affinis pairs presented high overlap in home ranges, while S. islerorum pairs presented only limited overlap. We observed no territorial interspecific aggression between both species in spite of a high overlap in their home ranges. The cerrado típico was preferred by S. affinis, and the cerrado ralo by Suiriri islerorum. More open vegetations were avoided by both species.