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Dryad

Data from: Widespread bird species show idiosyncratic responses in residual body mass to selective logging and edge effects in the Colombian Western Andes

Data files

Jul 13, 2022 version files 298.95 KB

Abstract

This dataset consists of banding data (N = 1589 captures, 129 bird species), including morphological and breeding biology measures, collected from understory birds in subtropical cloudforest at roughly 2000 m.a.s.l. in the municipality of El Cairo in Colombia's Western Andes (Serrania de los Paraguas range). Roughly 8,350 net hours were divided into two three-month field seasons (June-August 2017 and January-March 2018), both corresponding to local dry seasons. Birds were banded along 500-meter transects in forest interior across a gradient of forest fragment patch sizes (N = 8 fragments, area range = 10-173 ha) and a private ~750 ha reserve (Reserva Natural Cerro El Ingles) in the same landscape. Each non-hummingbird capture was fitted with an aluminum leg band with a unique combination, and we collected data on mass, tarsus length, wing chord, pectoral muscle score, cloacal protuberance and brood patch score, and age and sex (where possible due to plumage differences). We captured 101 species (including 6 boreal migrants) in 844 captures (53%) during the January-March sampling period and 102 species in 745 captures during the June-August sampling period; each site was sampled during both sampling periods. The most captured bird families were Trochilidae (24 spp., 36% of total captures), Thraupidae (17 spp.), Tyrannidae (16 spp.), Furnariidae (14 spp.), and Turdidae (6 spp.).

A subset of these data (uploaded as a separate file) were used to calculate body condition indices for 20 species of commonly captured birds (N = 984 captures) that occured across much of the patch size gradient (at least 8 out of 14 transects), and were related to fragment area and measures of edge and selective logging effects (see Jones et al. 2022). In this file, we include all predictor variables necessary to run the generalized linear mixed models in Jones et al. (2022), including proportion forest cover within 1 km (a proxy for patch size), edge density, average distance to forest edge from the netting transect, average canopy cover and height along the transect, multivariate measures of understory plant density, large-diameter tree density, and vertical vegetation structure, elevation of each transect, and average yearly rainfall for each transect.