Savannah Trees Attract More Migratory Bird Species Than Residents, But Why?

Arboreal bird species occurring in the wide transient zone between Sahara and tropical rain forest are unequally distributed across the rainfall zones. As this also holds for the woody plant species which they select for foraging, it is possible that birds are bound to specific rainfall zones because their preferred woody species are common there. But it may also be the other way around, i.e. that the distribution of birds is primarily determined by their selection of a specific rainfall zone, with the choice of particular woody plants being collateral. We made maps of the predicted distribution of birds based on their occurrence in different woody species (such as measured from field study sites) multiplied by the average density at which bird species forage in those woody plant species. We then compared these maps with the observed distribution of 13 bird species (7 Afro-Palearctic migrants and 6 Afro-tropical residents). This comparison shows that the distribution of birds is largely determined by the distribution of their preferred woody species rather than rainfall. However, there are small, but systematic differences between observed and predicted bird densities in the most arid and most humid parts of their distributions. Most migrants are commoner than predicted in the semi-arid and arid zone (100–600 mm rainfall/year) and most residents commoner in the humid zone. This was confirmed in a separate analysis of the densities at which these bird species forage in five common and bird-rich tree species occurring over a wide range of rainfall zones. There are no empirical data to support the idea that migrants and residents are spatially separated to avoid interspecific competition, so the question remains what migrants gain by their preference for trees from the (semi)arid zone. In the (semi)arid zones, preferred trees are as fully leafed in the dry season as the same trees farther south, but insectivorous birds in the arid zone had a higher capture rate in those trees, suggesting a larger supply of insect prey. In addition, the driest zones held far fewer avian predators than any other vegetation zone in the sub-Sahara, indicating a lower predation risk. We suggest that arboreal birds find better living conditions in the dry zones than in the more humid zones. But there is a trade-off: arid regions have a higher overall probability of very low rainfall years when trees lose their leaves or even die, than do the more humid regions. In those years, mortality among birds in the arid zones will be disproportionally high.