Bird Survey Data, Far North Queensland Rainforest SuperSite, Robson Creek, 2016

Brief description

This project is documenting the distribution of bird species and the structure of bird communities at the TERN 25 Ha Plot at Robson Creek. The advantage of using the Plot as a point of focus is that the mapping and plant community data provide a phenological and ecological context for interpreting drivers of the bird community at that site.

The Robson Creek plot site was chosen because being situated at c. 700m it represents a ‘tension’ zone between different tropical forest communities that are likely to show shifts under climate change. Bird communities below 600-800m can be characterised as current lowland, warm climate communities while those above 600-800m take on species with upland distributions, e.g. golden bowerbireds. grey-headed robins and fernwrens. Robson Creek being situated at the current altitudinal boundaries of the distribution of the upland and lowland specialist species consequently represents an ideal site for monitoring the species and community responses to climate change over time.

In this project we are interested in species and community responses to climate change in three contexts. First, at the species level we are interested in how individual species respond in abundance and seasonality. Second, at the community level we are interested in i) describing changes in species distribution, ii) the effects of this on community composition and structure and iii) how this varies through the year.