Capture rates of birds in the high Andes of Ecuador

There is a long history of using birds as indicators of pervasive environmental threats. In the High Andes, birds face potential threats from global climate change and from the impacts of land use changes associated with logging, grazing, fire, and agricultural expansion. We use an 11-year constant effort, avian mist netting data set from two protected areas in the High Andes of Azuay province, Ecuador, to explore how environmental change is affecting resident bird species in high-elevation habitats. We estimated a statistically significant mean decrease of 2.8% in capture rate across years for the full species assemblage and across all habitats. Species-specific capture rates across habitats declined for 29 of the 38 species that met our inclusion criteria. When species were grouped by diet, body size, primary habitat occupied, or habitat breadth, capture rates did not change differently among ecological groups of birds. Although we cannot identify the mechanisms behind the decline, th..., Our study was conducted in the Llaviuco Valley (02.840° S, 79.160° W) of Cajas National Park, and the adjacent 2700 ha Mazán Reserve (02.870° S, 79.120° W) in the High Andes of Azuay province, Ecuador. Sample sites were placed in three unique habitats. These included: (1) native forest (MASE) in the Mazán Reserve; (2) non-native forest (MAIN) also in the Mazán Reserve; and (3) shrubland (LLAV) in the Llaviuco Valley. In 2006, we established a “long-term” bird-monitoring program using standardized methods of constant effort mist netting. Each of our three sites was sampled three times annually (2006–2016) to cover the rainfall seasonality of the study area; we sampled during the main rainy season (21 March–6 May), the dry season (19 July–9 September), and the secondary rainy season (30 October–20 December). At each of the three sites, we captured birds by dispersing 20 mist-nets (12 x 3 m, 30 mm mesh) throughout a selected habitat, with individual nets placed along or perpendicular to na..., # Capture rates of birds in the high Andes of Ecuador

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxbh](10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxbh)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data set contains the raw number of capture birds in three different habitat types. Each of our three habitat types was sampled three times annually (2006–2016).

### Files and variables

#### File: Data_set.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* year: Year of the capture
* session: three sampling periods per year. Sampling period 1: (within 21 March–6 May), Sampling period 2 (19 July–9 September), and Sampling period 3 (30 October–20 December).
* Location: SHRUB = Shrubland; NATIVE = Native forest; MIXED = Non native forest
* N: Number of individuals captured
* Species: Species names

#### File: Metadata.csv

**Description:** Metadata for the Data_set.csv

##### Variables

* Year: Year of the capture
* Session: Three sampling session per year
* Location: Habitat type where the capture ocurred
* N: Number of captu...,