Birds asociated to cultivated parcel edges of wheat (Burruyacú, Tucumán, Argentina).

Abstract

In the district of Burruyacú, Tucuman, Argentina, there are approximately 214,000 hectares of wheat in parcels that maintain crop edges with remnants of native vegetation and introduced species. The composition, structure and feeding guilds of bird assemblages on edges of a crop in one particular property during two crop cycles were analyzed. A richness of 102 species and a total of 30 families were determined. Five trophic guilds were recognized among which insectivorous species (44 %) were prevalent, with Furnarius rufus as the species with greatest frequency of occurrence (52 %). Granivores followed (31 % of the species), noticeable by the abundance values of Columbina picui, Zenaida auriculata, Zonotrichia capensis y Sicalis luteola. Forty-four % of the total number of bird species known to “pedemontano” woods in the province was recognized. We conclude that the presence of crop edges with vegetation troughout the crop cycle, benefits the local bird fauna.