Forest Fragmentation Research

Food supply, nest predation and songbird demography in forest fragments.

Many species of songbirds that do well when occupying only a few hectares within an intact forest decline and disappear from similarly sized remnants.  Such ‘area-sensitive’ species often only persist in remnants that are much larger than would be expected given their habitat requirements within intact forests.  I conducted a large-scale, spatially and temporally replicated, mensurative experiment designed to test the joint effects of food and predation on the demography of an area-sensitive songbird inhabiting forest fragments of different size.  I compared three independent indices of food availability, and three measures of predation, as well as monitoring seasonal fecundity and adult female survival among Eastern Yellow Robins breeding in two small, and two large forest fragments, set within an agricultural landscape in southeastern Australia.  All three indices of food availability were indicative of food shortage in smaller fragments.  These novel results have attracted considerable attention (see links to E.N.N. Report below).

Environmental News Network Report: "Deforestation may be starving songbirds"

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis)

Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis)


Wildlife population ecology, behaviour, physiology and conservation