Bird Community Composition And Species Abundance On Two Inshore Islands In The Atlantic Forest Region Of Brazil

Abstract

Many endemic birds are threatened with extinction in Brazil's Atlantic forest and several inshore islands have been identified as key areas for bird conservation. We used a point count method to record forest birds on two of these islands, in the 22,500 ha Ilha do Cardoso State Park and the 5,600 ha Ilha Grande State Park, 450 km to the northeast. Our estimates of bird species richness was higher on Cardoso than Ilha Grande (75 versus 57 species), as was species diversity, and importance of Red List species (8 versus 2 species). The contribution of various families to the avifauna differed between the islands with Columbidae and Pipridae more common on Ilha Grande, and Trochilidae, Picidae and Formicariidae more dominant on Cardoso. Noteworthy were the abundance of Turdidae and the rarity of Psittacidae on both islands as compared to other sites in the region. Abundance of individual species on the two islands was uncorrelated. 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