Consumption of Urban Figs Dominated by a Small Subset of Native and Introduced Bird Species

Ficus (fig) plants are one of the most important food sources in tropical and subtropical areas. While studies have investigated fig-bird interactions, the knowledge for Taiwan is comparatively modest. Therefore, the goal of this study was to learn more about the natural history of avian frugivores in urban fig trees in Taiwan using observational surveys. During almost 250h of observation, we recorded the species richness and prevalence of birds in 33 fig trees. Visitation rates of fig trees were related to fruit abundance and time of day. Furthermore, we showed that bird species richness in urban fig trees was lower than in non-urban fig trees, and that the few species which dominated in urban fig trees were a small subset of the native and introduced bird species found in the surrounding urban bird communities. Since we observed a relatively high prevalence of introduced bird species in fig trees, we suggest that the year-round availability of figs is an additional factor for introduced bird species to be able to successfully establish themselves. Thus, fig trees appear to be an important resource for urban frugivorous birds and especially for introduced bird species which are already familiar with figs from their native countries.