Effects of rainforest fragmentation and disturbance on the demographics of Southeast Asian birds

Southeast Asia is currently subject to one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. The consequences are poorly understood. Accordingly, I review my recent work on the effects of forest fragmentation and disturbance on the demography of Southeast Asian birds. Studies using indirect demographic measures (age structure, sex ratio, recapture rates,presence of ectoparasites and fault bars) found that such variables did not differ among monitored populations in intact and fragmented/secondary forests. However, more individuals had fault bars in forest fragments and more recaptures were recorded in intact continuous forest. Artificial nest predation experiments showed that bird populations in primary forests generally suffered less from depredation than those in secondary forests. Overall, information available on the demographics of Southeast Asian forest birds remains poor; yet it is vital for enhancing knowledge of regional avian ecology and effective regional conservation.