Habitat Association Patterns of Forest and Steppe Birds of Northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

I censused birds across a moisture gradient in northern Patagonia, Argentina, in the vicinity of Bariloche. Over a 60-km distance, the 12 sites ranged from grassland at lower elevations to upland climax Nothofagus forests of the eastern Andes. Here, I correlated bird abundance and diversities with various vegetation measures. Using all sites, bird diversities and abundances were positively correlated with various foliage measures. When grasslands were excluded, however, an inverse relationship was found: birds were more diverse and abundant in the lower stature shrub communities than in complex forests. Multiple regression analyses of this apparently paradoxical situation indicated that certain species of plants probably had important effects on community structure.