Response in bird community to a forest fire: Does bird population recover after several years?

Abstract

Fires occur almost every year in Sumatra Indonesia and have impacted on biodiversity. As a part of the ecosystem, birds play an essential role in the food chain and have a function as specific indicators of the ecosystem. Despite its important role, the response of the bird community to forest fires is not yet completely understood. To improve the understanding of the recovery of bird community after the forest fire, especially in Indonesia, we conducted a study in 2017 and 2019 at a sago plantation forest in Riau Province, Sumatra. We used the combination of point count method, transect method, and exploration to observe the bird community for 40 days at the burned area and unburned area. We estimated the response of birds on forest fire by quantifying and assess the level of species richness, species evenness, similarity, and feeding group of species. We found that bird communities are starting being recovery four years after the forest fire. Even though the value varies among sites, the species richness and evenness in the burned area are increasing in two years, as much as 28.56%, and 6.52%, respectively. In the fourth year, this recovery was also indicated by the higher number of individuals in the burned area than in the unburned area. In the functional diversity, insectivore is the dominant feeding group. This study revealed that the burned are, that impact on food source regimes, may sustain the existence and recovery of bird community in the post-fire area.