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Birds nesting survival in disturbed and protected Neotropical savannas

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Abstract

Fragmentation and other habitat disturbances are long known to negatively affect birds, in large part by decreasing nest success due to high nest predation rates. The factors, however, that cause this decrease in nest success are still poorly understood and may vary among regions or species. Here, we show that nest survival is also lower in a disturbed landscape versus a protected cerrado (savanna-like) Neotropical landscape. Also, we tested the importance of garbage in the nest, brood parasitism, microhabitat and bird family in nest survival, controlling for temporal effects. We monitored 144 birds’ nests in a disturbed landscape and 150 nests in a natural reserve of cerrado vegetation in central Brazil, between September and December 2006. We used Program MARK to estimate nest survival probabilities and evaluate the effect of covariates in nest success in the disturbed area. Nest daily survival rate (DSR) was higher in the reserve (survival probability = 29.4%) than in the disturbed landscape (survival probability = 16.6%). Nest daily survival rate (DSR) was smaller in nests with garbage (survival probability = 9.3%) than in nests without garbage (survival probability = 19.5%) in the disturbed landscape. Effects of habitat disturbance on nest survival differed among bird families, with finches and tanagers being more affected mostly due to high nest predation rates. Conservation and management of birds in disturbed landscapes should include actions to decrease nest predation. In poor rural or suburban areas in developing countries, such as Brazil, actions like better garbage treatment may help conserve birds in disturbed landscapes.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the administrators of ESECAE (GDF-DF) and the property owners of “Jardim Morumbi” for allowing the study in their properties. This study was partially funded by research grants from CNPq, FUNPE and Neotropical Grassland Conservancy. FJAB held a scholarship from CAPES and MÂM held a researcher fellowship from CNPq. We thank James Nichols for help with program MARK, and Drs. James Hoper, Juan Reboreda and Celine Melo for criticisms of the manuscript. Several graduate and undergraduate students helped with field work.

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  1. Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Fábio Júlio Alves Borges

  2. Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Miguel Ângelo Marini

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  1. Fábio Júlio Alves Borges
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Correspondence to Fábio Júlio Alves Borges.

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Borges, F.J.A., Marini, M.Â. Birds nesting survival in disturbed and protected Neotropical savannas. Biodivers Conserv 19, 223–236 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9718-z

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