AVAILABILITY OF TREE CAVITIES AND ABUNDANCE OF CAVITY NESTING BIRDS: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT IN NORTHWESTERN ARGENTINA

SCHAAF ALEJANDRO; TALLEI EVER; VIVANCO CONSTANZA; RIVERA LUIS; POLITI NATALIA

Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

0px; ">Forestry management changes forest structure and composition and it has beensuggested that cavity nesting birds are particularly sensitive to these changes. The aim166of this study is to determine if cavity nesting birds using cavities present in the forest(secondary cavity-nesters) change their abundance and to understand the relationshipbetween this group of species and cavity availabilityin piedmont Yungas forest beinglogged in northwestern Argentina. During two breeding seasons we conducted 30 pointcounts of 10 minutes length and 50 meter fixed-radius across three reference sites andthree sites with forestry management in order to determine bird abundance.Additionally, we selected 10 to 20 circular plots to evaluate density of trees with cavities.We found higher abundance of secondary users in sites without forestry managementcompared to those being logged (6,41 ± 4,16 vs. 3,36 ± 2,73; U Mann-Whitney = 22771- p= <0,0001). Cavity density was also higher in sites without forestry management(14,88 ± 7,50 vs. 6,20 ± 4,05; U Mann-Whitney = 1147,50 - p= <0,0001). Secondary userabundance was positively correlated with cavity density (R²= 0,78 ? p= 0,003). Therelationship between secondary users and cavity density suggests the need formaintaining these cavities available in sites with forestry management