Bird species sensitivity in a fragmented landscape of the Atlantic forest in southern Brazil

I tested whether terrestrial/understory habits, large body sizes, low tolerance to edge or to matrix habitat, and food/habitat specialization are characteristics of the most vulnerable bird species based on point counts conducted in 14 forest fragments in northern Parana, southern region of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. In addition, the sensitivity level of each bird species to forest fragmentation in northern Parana (high, medium, and low) was compared to the Vicosa region, another fragmented landscape of the Atlantic forest. Contrary to expectations, large body size and terrestrial/understory habits were not features clearly related to high sensitivity to forest fragmentation; but species with tolerance to edge did have lower sensitivity. I found also that specialized habitat/food were not good predictors of extinctions; the most specialized guilds, bamboo and vine-tangle insectivores and trunk and twig insectivores, had a high number of species with low sensitivity. Patterns of sensitivity were compared for 75 bird species that occurred in both northern Parana and Vicosa; higher incongruence occurred for 14 and 7 species considered as highly sensitive in Vicosa but were of medium or low sensitivity, respectively, in northern Parana. These differences may occur because sensitivity to habitat fragmentation may vary from the center to the periphery of a species' geographic range. Geographic variation in patterns of sensitivity to forest fragmentation may be important for conservation planning.