Data from: Lianas abundance is positively related with the avian acoustic community in tropical dry forests

Dry forests are important sources of biodiversity where lianas are highly
abundant given their ability to grow during times of drought and as a
result of secondary growth processes. Lianas provide food and shelter for
fauna such as birds, but there are no studies assessing the influence of
liana abundance on birds in dry forests. Here we evaluate the influence of
liana abundance on the avian acoustic community in the dry forests of
Costa Rica at Santa Rosa National Park. We selected forest sites with
different levels of liana abundance and set up automated sound recorders
for data collection, analysis and estimation of the avian acoustic
community. When the number of lianas increases, the avian acoustic
community becomes more complex. Lianas could provide important direct and
indirect resources for birds such as structure for shelter, protection,
nesting and roosting, and food. The positive relationship that lianas have
with birds is particularly important in dry forests where lianas are
becoming highly abundant due to the level of forest disturbance and
climate change, especially for some bird species that are restricted to
this ecosystem. By validating the number of bird species detected in the
recordings with the acoustic complexity index, we found that a higher
acoustic complexity means higher species richness.