Clearing width and movements of understory rainforest birds

We assessed the capacity of three species of disturbance-sensitive understory birds to traverse a highway (50-75 in width) and large farm clearing (250 m width), by radio-tracking translocated individuals in central Amazonia, Brazil. Most individuals translocated across the highway (eight of nine birds) or moved within continuous forest (five of seven birds) returned to their home ranges, whereas none of five birds moved across the large clearing returned. Our results suggest that large clearings (>250 in width) can significantly reduce the movements of some understory rainforest birds.