Plant traits determine seed retention times in frugivorous birds: implications for long-distance seed dispersal

Here we explore if plant traits can determine seed retention times in frugivorous birds. To do so we conducted two sets of experiments to measure seed retention times in 31 fruit species consumed by a single bird species, and in a subset of five fruit species consumed by five bird species. Seed ejections were video-recorded and thus we assigned retention times to 7752 seeds. As well, we obtained data on seed and pulp traits to explore its relationship with seed retention times. We further conducted a literature review compilating 175 'bird species-plant species' interactions reporting retention times.
We make available the raw data and code associated with our study. Users can download these resources and refer to the accompanying README file, which provides a description of the data and file structure, enabling the reproduction of our main results and figures.