Data from: Elevational distribution of birds in an Eastern African montane environment as governed by temperature, precipitation, and habitat availability

We conducted annual point counts of birds between 2013 and 2018 at 297
plots across habitats and elevations (2,416-4,303 m) in Volcanoes National
Park, Rwanda. These data were subsequently used to determine elevational
and habitat preferences via indicator analyses, and to model abundance
distributions as a function of temperature, precipitation, habitat
availability, and congeneric competition. Of 35 focal species, we
found 20 species to be particularly associated with narrow elevational
range (<300 m) and 24 species to have a strong associated with one
to three habitat types. Abiotic conditions, estimated for each plot
location, significantly correlated with the abundance distributions of 33
species (temperature 33, precipitation 17), and biotic factors with
distributions of 31 species (habitat 30, competition 7). Temperature and
habitat availability were particularly associated with upper elevational
limits (31 and 26 species respectively vs. 10 and 6 at lower limits),
whereas precipitation affected both limits similarly (17 lower, 16 upper),
and competition had a limited role at either limit (4 lower, 3 upper).
That the elevational distribution of Afromontane birds results from a
species-specific combination of biotic and abiotic factors is crucial
information in our effort to predict climate change effects in this
region.