Foraging niche dynamics and overlap in a guild of passerine birds in a south Swedish coniferous woodland

Abstract

Three foraging niche dimensions were measured at four seasons in six passerine bird species in a pine-dominated woodland. Total niche size increased in the order Certhia familiaris. In the first two species niche sizewas relatively constant at all seasons in spite of fluctuations in separatedimensions suggesting intraspecific complementarity between dimensionbreadths. Diffuse niche overlap was much lower in summer than at otherseasons in all species. Generally, this was due to movements of exploitationcurves along resource axes away from zones of interspecific overlap andto enlargement of total guild niche size, rather than to a reduction in totalniche size of the species. In some species a positive correlation was indicatedbetween breadth of niche dimension and diffuse overlap in the same dimension.Total niche size was correlated with total diffuse overlap up to acertain overlap value. Interspecific niche size complementarity was stronglysuggested by total guild niche being much less variable between seasons thanthe separate niche size of each species. The narrow niche of P. major, usuallyregarded a generalist, may be due to it being primarily adapted to broadleavedrather than coniferous woodland.