Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Rey P.J. (1993) The role of olive orchards in the wintering of frugivorous birds in Spain. ARDEA 81 (2): 151-159
The density of frugivorous birds in parcels of olive orchards in southern Spain was rated and compared with other habitats bearing fleshy winter fruits, mainly wild olive shrubland and other natural shrublands of the Mediterranean area. All olive orchards maintained high densities of frugivorous birds throughout the wintering season (November-February), and showed a very consistent species composition of frugivores. In southern Spain there was a gradient in the density, proportion and numbers of frugivorous species among different habitats; this gradient was related to the level of habitat alteration. The density of frugivorous birds in the natural Mediterranean shrublands was higher than in the wild olive shrubland and, in turn, higher in the wild olive shrubland than in the olive orchards. Some frugivorous species disappeared along this gradient, whereas others were favoured. Small-sized species decreased most whereas some middle-size species were favoured. This is most probably because of the structural simplicity, the low fruit species diversity and the large size of the fruits. In general, frugivorous species and specifically small-sized frugivorous species were more frequent in southern than in northern Spain.


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