Habitat degradation and fragmentation are serious threats to global biodiversity. Attributes of vegetation structure and patch structure have been considered critical factors in sustaining species diversity, but their relative importance remains unclear. This study aimed at identifying key vegetation and patch structure variables for bird species richness and examining their relative importance. We surveyed and mapped all individual birds in a 50-ha forest-farm landscape mosaic over three breeding seasons and recorded the vegetation in 286 patches of six land-use types. Native forests and conifer plantations (covering 59% of the area) contained 89% of the individuals and all of the bird species recorded. The effects of vegetation structure variables, tree family richness, and foliage coverage were more significant than those of patch-structure variables. Although conifer plantations were low in tree family richness of the canopy layer, they had a high tree family richness in the sub-canopy layer, and had similar bird density and species richness values as native forests. Creating and maintaining patches with a complex vegetation structure are critical for supporting animal abundance and species diversity. Forest patches dominated by only a few tree species in the canopy layer can be greatly improved by increasing the floristic composition of the sub-canopy layer. Large patches with a complex vegetation structure are important for sustaining biodiversity and should be kept as intact as possible.

<p>Oil palm expansion has caused considerable biodiversity loss as rainforest has been converted to plantation. However, it is still possible to mitigate such biodiversity losses and increase agricultural sustainability by introducing sustainable oil palm farming practices. One such method is the use of biological control agents for understory weed management in place of herbicides. Integrating cattle into oil palm plantation management to control undergrowth is expected to improve biodiversity (including avian diversity) in oil palm plantations. This study investigated the association between cattle grazing and farmland bird species composition in oil palm plantations. We used point transect sampling to survey farmland birds in 45 oil palm plantations which were divided into systematically and non-systematically cattle grazed plantations and control plantations (without cattle grazing). We found that both oil palm plantations with systematic (P=0.001) and non-systematic (P=0.005) cattle grazing had greater avian diversity than plantations without cattle grazing. Based on feeding guild, avian insectivores made up the majority of farmland birds observed. Bird species composition was determined by four attributes in our model: number of cattle, selective weeding frequency, age of oil palm stand, and palm height. We conclude that systematic grazing can improve avian diversity in oil palm plantations. We stress, that cattle integration into oil palm agriculture can provide an excellent means of maximising agricultural land use efficiency as well as increasing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes by increasing habitat complexity.</p>

Loss of mature tropical forests to agricultural expansion often creates landscapes with forest fragments embedded within a matrix of human-modified habitats and land uses. Such habitat fragmentation may be detrimental to species with specialized habitat and foraging requirements and their ability to persist in such landscapes may depend on their adaptability to habitat modification. Great Hornbills Buceros bicornis, among the largest birds in Asian tropical rainforests, depend on large trees for nesting and a diverse array of patchily distributed fruiting trees. In the human-modified landscape of the Anamalai Hills, India, we compared the breeding biology and nesting behaviour of Great Hornbills in contiguous rainforest (N=3 nests) and in modified habitat consisting of coffee plantations and rainforest fragments (N=5 nests). The nesting cycle of seven of the eight nests monitored varied between 114 and 130 days. Nest provisioning behaviour was similar in contiguous forest and modified habitat in terms of visitation and food delivery rates, but visitation tended to be higher and food delivery rate lower during the nestling phase than during incubation. As expected, tree density and native food plant diversity were lower in modified habitat than in continuous forest. The diversity of food provisioned was lower in modified habitat with a 57.5% dietary overlap with contiguous forest. Hornbills in the modified habitat of coffee plantations used non-native tree species for nesting and foraging, indicating their adaptability to modified landscapes.

Climate change-mediated range shifts have been well illustrated for a range of avian species. Here, we report on a new distribution site of the Common Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus in Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei Province, China. This site lies about 700 km beyond the previously traditional northern limit of the species' range. Based on publications and birding records of Cuckoos in China, we found that 8 of 17 species had extended their known distribution ranges northward or westward since 1976.

Abstract We summarize records of courtship and offspring feeding for 16 resident passerine birds based on long-term observations made by amateur ornithologists in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Courtship feeding was detected in nine passerine species, including two that had not been previously reported to perform this behavior in Japan. Fledgling feeding and food transport to nests were detected in almost all of the species. Courtship feeding was detected mainly in early spring, but in some species it also occurred in winter. We discuss briefly the implications of the results, as well as possible biases and limitations of citizen-based research.

Abstract Songbirds provide an opportunity to explore the neural mechanism underlying the learning and production of complex sound sequences. Imaging the neural structure at single-cell resolution in large volume tissue helps to disclose the functions of neural circuits involved in the song system. Recent advancements in optical clearing techniques may contribute to successful imaging of large-volume samples of songbird brains. These new clearing methods were originally optimized for rodent nervous tissues and previously have not been tested on avian brains. Here we examined whether SeeDB and ClearT, two of the latest optical clearing methods, are suitable for songbird brains, in addition to rodent brains. These two methods were chosen because of the shortness of time required to complete them and because of their compatibility with common lipophilic dye labeling. We applied these methods to brain sections of Bengalese Finches Lonchura striata var. domestica and laboratory rats Rattus norvegicus, then quan...

We investigated the feeding preferences of the White-cheeked Starling Spodiopsar cineraceus in Korean village groves during the breeding season by means of a fecal dietary analysis using a non-invasive molecular approach. A total of 529 fecal samples were collected from four different study sites, 113 of them (21.4% of all fecal samples) were identified as those of S. cineraceus. Analysis showed that the starling's diet mostly consisted of animal matter (64.5%), but also contained vegetable matter (32.7%). Terrestrial prey, such as insects and spiders, constituted the largest proportion (65.2%) of species in the diet, although aquatic organisms (26.1%) were also important. Most of the seeds detected in feces were of mulberries, with detection rates rising to 68.1% by the end of May and remaining high until mid-June. Our results suggest that higher water levels in paddy fields due to irrigation could potentially act as an impediment to bird feeding, particularly for small birds such as S. cineraceus and induce a dietary shift to terrestrial organisms from aquatic organisms. In addition, we suggest that human agricultural activities may influence the feeding activities of small bird species such as S. cineraceus in an agricultural ecosystem.