PHENOLOGY OF TROPICAL BIRDS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: EFFECTS OF SELECTIVE LOGGING AND FOOD RESOURCES

Abstract

Abstract The increasing prevalence of selective logging in Southeast Asian tropical rainforests compels much-needed studies to examine its effects on the vital life-cycle events of their resident understory birds, which are particularly sensitive to such degradation. Food abundance, which can be an important factor in avian phenology, may be affected by selective logging. Therefore, studies that compare food abundance and breeding and molting occurrence simultaneously at the same sites are important for the ecological monitoring of such logging regimes. Using bimonthly mist netting in two rainforest areas in Peninsular Malaysia, we assessed the breeding and molting occurrence and diets of understory birds and compared the abundance of food resources in unlogged forests and forests that had been selectively logged 30 years before. Our study revealed no differences between forest types in overall understory-resident bird abundance; comparative species richness; feeding-guild composition; breeding and moltin...