Seed dispersal by birds

At Las Cruces, as in most tropical wet or tropical moist forests, the majority of woody species are animal-dispersed. Therefore, seed input into successional sites like abandoned pastures will be strongly influenced by what the disperser animals are doing. Bird and bats are the most obvious dispersers, but mammals disperse many tropical woody species as well. Below are six of the common frugivorous birds of the Las Cruces area. The top row shows a Common bush-tanager on the left, a blue-gray tanager in the center, and a Chestnut-capped brush finch on the right. In the bottom row, we see the white rumped manakin, the mistletoe tyrannulet, and the buff-throated saltator on the left, center, and right.

Here are some birds able to disperse large-seeded plant species: the fiery-billed aracari, the emerald toucanet, and the crested guan, from left, center, and right. All of the birds shown above are rather small, and thus they are not able to disperse large-seeded species of forest plants. The large-seeded, animal-dispersed species require large dispersers, such as those shown here. Any of these large birds could ingest and disperse the large seeds of trees like the various Nectandra species, or Beilschmedia pendula.