Habitat disturbance alters movement behaviour in a social Afrotropical forest bird

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We investigated how forest degradation affects the movement of the placid greenbul (Phyllastrephus placidus), a cooperative breeding bird in the Taita Hills, Kenya. Using radiotelemetry, we tracked dominant breeders in two forest fragments with different degradation levels. Degradation at the territory level was quantified using LiDAR-based remote sensing. Individuals in the more degraded forest travelled further and had larger home ranges than those in less degraded areas. This was likely due to reduced canopy cover because travel distances were inversely related to canopy cover, and individuals were found in areas with above-average canopy height relative to canopy height calculated over the entire home range. Group size did not affect movement. Our findings suggest that habitat degradation reduces the availability of suitable foraging patches and increases resource dispersion without necessarily affecting resource richness within patches. These results highlight the need for conservation strategies aimed at preventing further forest degradation to safeguard species reliant on moist tropical forests.

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