Microhabitat requirements and occupancy of understorey bird forest specialists in Southern Mistbelt Forests of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Monitoring species’ habitat selection and microhabitat requirements is vital for conservation and management, though studies on bird species’ habitat selection at relatively fine scales are often limited. Camera traps are useful techniques for studying bird communities, particularly elusive species that are challenging to document using traditional survey techniques. Here, we installed 184 camera traps during the non-breeding and breeding seasons to study understorey forest-specialist birds’ habitat requirements in 14 selected Southern Mistbelt Forest patches of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We conducted foliage profile and forest structure surveys and an inventory of tree species richness to characterise forest microhabitat. Over 7182 trap days, we had 615 detections of ten understorey forest-specialists, most of which were insectivores. We modelled the occupancy of Lemon Doves (Aplopelia larvata), Chorister Robin-chats (Cossypha dichroa), Crested Guineafowls (Guttera pucherani), and Red-necked Spurfowls (Pternistis afer) to determine microhabitat characteristics that influenced detection probability and occupancy. The main microhabitat characteristics influencing forest-specialist understorey birds were tree species richness, leaf litter, and water cover. Forest structural characteristics that influenced the occupancy of the selected understorey forest-specialists were those within 5 m of the forest floor. Microhabitat requirements for the birds were species-specific, with seasonal variation for Lemon Doves. Conservation strategies should maintain undisturbed forest understorey to allow for the persistence of understorey forest-specialist bird species.