Not All Pine Habitat is the Same: How Bird Communities Vary Among Mature Hispaniolan Pine Forests Shaped by Fire

Steven C. Latta

Not All Pine Habitat is the Same: How Bird Communities Vary Among Mature Hispaniolan Pine Forests Shaped by Fire

Steven C. Latta*

*National Aviary, Department of Conservation and Field Research, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, USA.

Caribbean Naturalist, No. 65 (2019)

Abstract
Pinus (pine) forests naturally vary in structure and composition, but disturbance regimes, and especially anthropogenic fire, often have a pronounced influence in shaping pine stands. Yet it is unknown how this variation in pine forest structure may be important to many bird species. I used 3 years of mist-net capture and point-count data to quantify how the suite of birds resident in 3 Pinus occidentalis (Hispaniolan Pine) forests respond to variation in habitat differently impacted by fire. Avian species composition varied significantly among all pairs of sites. Among 44 species recorded, the pine forest site with the most robust broadleaf understory had the greatest avian diversity from all trophic groups, the greatest number of endemic species and Nearctic-Neotropical migrants, and many species foraging in the understory. Capture rates for 7 species of endemics and migrants was also significantly greater at this site than at the other pine sites. Maintenance of pine forest with a robust broadleaf understory is likely dependent on the control of increasingly common wildfires that are a major threat to pine forests and their unique avian community.

Download Full-text pdf (Accessible only to subscribers. To subscribe click here.)