Bird community response to fruit energy

1. The abundance and predictability of food resources have been posited as explanations for the increase of animal species richness in tropical habitats. However, the heterogeneity of natural ecosystems makes it difficult to quantify a response of animal species richness to these qualities of food resources. 2. Fruit-frugivore studies are especially conducive for testing such ecological theories because fruit is conspicuous and easily counted. Fruit-frugivore research in some locations has demonstrated a relationship between animal abundance and fruit resource abundance, both spatially and temporally. These studies, which typically use fruit counts as the variable of fruit abundance, have never documented a response of species richness at the community level. Furthermore, these studies have not taken into account factors influencing the detection of an individual within surveys. 3. Using a combination of nonstandard approaches to fruit-frugivore research, we show a response of bird species richness to fruit resources. First, we use uniform and structurally similar, one-ha shade-grown coffee plots as replicated experimental units to reduce the influence of confounding variables. Secondly, we use multi-season occupancy modelling of a resident omnivorous bird assemblage in order to account for detection probability in our analysis of site occupancy, local immigration and local emigration. Thirdly, we expand our variable of fruit abundance, Fruit Energy Availability (FEA), to include not only fruit counts but also fruit size and fruit quality. 4. We found that a site's average monthly FEA was highly correlated (0·90) with a site's average bird species richness. In our multi-season occupancy model 92% of the weight of evidence supported a single model that included effects of FEA on initial occupancy, immigration, emigration and detection. 5. These results demonstrate that fruit calories can broadly influence the richness of a neotropical bird community, and that fluctuations of FEA explains much of the site occupancy patterns of component species. This study shows that in depauperate, managed landscapes fruit resource abundance supports more species and fruit constancy allows for higher levels of avian persistence, an important practical concept for conservation planning.