Range Sizes and Abundances of Passerines Introduced to Oahu, Hawaii

Abstract

Recently, several authors have reported positive relationships between species' abundances and sizes of geographic ranges in natural systems. In this paper we evaluate the utility of native range size as an index of abundance (and hence probability of extinction) among species of passerine birds introduced to Oahu, Hawaii. No significant positive correlations between size of native range and abundance were found at the ordinal, familial or generic levels. Moreover, no significant positive correlations were found within tropical species, non-tropical species, forest dwellers or non-forest dwellers. Thus size of native geographic range appears to be an inadequate index for predicting relative abundances of introduced passerines in alien environments.