Augusto Piratelli

Federal University of São Carlos | UFSCar · Departamento de Ciências Ambientais (DCA)

An Environmental Assessment (EA) is one of the steps within the Environmental Impact Assessment process. Birds are often used in EA to help decision makers evaluate potential human impacts from proposed development activities. A “sensitivity to human disturbance” index, created by Parker III et al. (1996) for all Neotropical species, is commonly co...

Mutualistic interactions repeatedly preserved across fragmented landscapes can scale-up to form a spatial metanetwork describing the distribution of interactions across patches. We explored the structure of a bird seed-dispersal (BSD) metanetwork in 16 Neotropical forest fragments to test whether a distinct subset of BSD-interactions may mediate la...

Animal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife–human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards huma...

Tropical insectivorous birds comprise a diverse group that has a distinct response to habitat degradation. However, knowledge on birds’ ecological functions and their large-scale functional responses to human impacts across various habitats is scarce. We sampled 22 1-km-radius buffer landscapes within the Cantareira-Mantiqueira region (south-east B...

Conversion of lands to agroecosystems has resulted in a decline in bird biodiversity. Analyzing functional diversity is a central tool for detecting changes in the ecological functions performed by birds in these landscapes. This paper aims to investigate the responses of bird taxonomic and functional diversity to landscape heterogeneity and native...

Fires are increasingly affecting tropical biomes, where landscape-fire interactions remain understudied. We investigate the fire-proneness—the likelihood of a land use or land cover (LULC) type burning more or less than expected based on availability—in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (AF). This biodiversity hotspot is increasingly affected by fires...

Collisions between wild birds and anthropogenic structures, such as window panes, pose a significant threat, resulting in an alarming number of bird deaths annually. Despite being a global concern, scientific research in Latin America remains incipient, highlighting the need for more research into the impacts on birdlife. In this study, we collecte...

The Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari Bonaparte, 1856) is a Brazilian parrot globally threatened by extinction. Despite its threatened status (endangered), there is a scarcity of studies on its behavior. Understanding the behavior of this species is crucial to prevent inaccuracies in management and conservation strategies. This study aimed to delin...

Latin American cityscapes are growing fast, posing risks to many bird communities and ecosystem services (e.g. seed dispersal and arthropod population control), but few studies have addressed how bird functional diversity respond to urbanization in Neotropical cities. In this study, we tested which biotic (i.e. vegetation characteristics and human...

The escape behaviour, measured as flight initiation distance (FID; the distance at which individuals take flight when approached by a potential predator, usually a human in the study systems), is a measure widely used to study fearfulness and risk-taking in animals. Previous studies have shown significant differences in the escape behaviour of bird...

Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costl...

Urbanization creates the most irreversible and human-dominated form of land use, often resulting in species losses and functional homogenization of bird communities. Here we investigate how housing areas in a Neotropical megacity may drive bird species occurrence and functional diversity in high densely habited areas. Using three local scales (radi...

Background Urbanization will increase in the next decades, causing the loss of green areas and bird diversity within cities. There is a lack of studies at a continental scale analyzing the relationship between urban green areas, such as parks and cemeteries, and bird species richness in the Neotropical region. Bird diversity-environment relationshi...

The Neotropical region has been subjected to massive urbanization, which poses high risks for some global biodiversity hotspots and losses of ecosystem functions and services. In this study, we investigate how distance from large patches of native forests (source areas) and vegetation (green)/and infrastructure (gray) characteristics affect bird sp...

Ecological niche models (ENMs) are often used to investigate how climatic variables from known occurrence records can estimate potential species range distribution. Although climate-based ENMs provide critical baseline information, the inclusion of non-climatic predictors related to vegetation cover might generate more realistic scenarios. This ass...

Deforestation and habitat loss resulting from land use changes are some of the utmost anthropogenic impacts that threaten tropical birds in human-modified landscapes (HMLs). The degree of these impacts on birds’ diet, habitat use, and ecological niche can be measured by isotopic analysis. We investigated whether the isotopic niche width, food resou...

Many studies in urban landscapes have revealed that vegetation structure influences the taxonomic diversity and traits of birds and drives greater bird richness in greenspaces. However, most of these studies have been carried out mainly in public spaces. Private lands represent large components of cityscapes worldwide, and so understanding the role...

Ecological restoration is a traditional option for recovering biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Birds perform pollination, seed dispersal, and pest-control services, which catalyze increases in habitat structure. Habitat complexity changes bird composition, but there is little evidence of its effects on bird functional diversity in Neotropical...

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In...

AVIFAUNA ASSOCIATED WITH MUÇUNUNGAS: COMPOSITION AND USE OF THE HABITAT: Muçunungas are vegetation formations in sandy soils, similar to restingas in structure and composition, ranging from grassy woody (GL) to low-density trees or muçununga forests (FM). Although some birds are known for this phytophysiognomy, few data are availableon the structur...

Millions of birds die every year from collisions with glass panes worldwide. These estimates are still scarce in the tropics, and more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive measures. We compared the efficacy of two methods to prevent bird-window collisions: birds of prey vs. circular decals (BPD and CD, respectively), contr...

The Atlantic Forest is highly heterogeneous, with successional stages inducing shifts in food resources for birds. We investigated fruit and flower availability across two different successional stages in a continuous forest and the implications for bird communities. We sampled three sites in primary forest and three in second-growth forest. We est...

Bird-window collisions are a major cause of bird mortality in the world; up to one billion birds die each year from collisions with glass panes in North America alone. However, relatively little attention had been given to this issue in the broad scientific literature, despite a recent increase in the number of papers. In this paper, the indexed li...

Main causes of bird-window collisions: a review SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Scientists have long been trying to understand why the Neotropical region holds the highest diversity of birds on Earth. Recently, there has been increased interest in morphological variation between and within species, and in how climate, topography, and anthropogenic pressures may explain and affect phenotypic variation. Because morphological dat...

Diversified assemblages of frugivores interact with fruits/seeds in tropical environments. Species within assemblages vary largely in body size, abundance, seed treatment and places of seed deposition, with possible delayed consequences for seed dispersal and plant regeneration. The variable outputs of the interaction may be magnified when consider...

Esse trabalho descreve um protocolo aplicável à avaliação e monitoramento dos impactos da queima de vegetação no Pantanal, sejam elas naturais, incêndios causados pelo homem, ou ainda práticas de manejo como a queima controlada e a queima prescrita da vegetação. Protocolos desta natureza são fundamentais para a aplicação prática de boas formas de u...

Scientists have long been trying to understand why the Neotropical region holds the highest diversity of birds on Earth. Recently, there has been increased interest in morpho- logical variation between and within species, and in how climate, topography, and anthropogenic pressures may explain and affect phenotypic variation. Because morphological d...

The conversion of natural areas into agricultural systems for food and energy production has globally put biodiversity and ecosystem functions at risk. Recent research has focused on characterizing biodiversity and ecological functions, e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, and control of herbivorous arthropods, as well as on the best agricultural pra...

Aim Biogeographical comparisons of interaction networks help to elucidate differences in ecological communities and ecosystem functioning at large scales. Neotropical ecosystems have higher diversity and a different composition of frugivores and fleshy‐fruited plants compared with Afrotropical systems, but a lack of intercontinental comparisons lim...

The conversion of natural areas into agricultural systems for food and energy production has globally put biodiversity and ecosystem functions at risk. Recent research has focused on characterizing biodiversity and ecological functions, e.g. pollination, seed dispersal, and control of herbivorous arthropods as well as on the best agricultural pract...

Molting and breeding cycles are high-energetic costs events, and usually synchronized and temporally well defined in tropical avian communities. However, in degraded and/or undergoing restoration areas, environmental stresses, such as forest fragmentation and restriction of food resources, could locally change these patterns. This study aims to ana...

Identification of the predators of bird nests is essential to test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses and to make practical management decisions. A variety of nest monitoring devices have been proposed but many remain difficult to set up in the field. The aim of this study was to test camera traps as a potential tool to study predation of natur...

Identification of the predators of bird nests is essential to test ecological and evolutionary hypotheses and to make practical management decisions. A variety of nest monitoring devices have been proposed but many remain difficult to set up in the field. The aim of this study was to test camera traps as a potential tool to study predation of natur...

Although vultures are scavengers that feed mainly carcasses, they occasionally may feed on living tissue of vulnerable vertebrates. In South America, most records of vulture attacks on live animals refer to newborns of domestic mammals. Here, we describe the behavior of a group of Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) feeding on a live capybara (Hydroc...

Mist netting is the most popular method for capturing birds, but it can increase the predation rates of individuals trapped in the nets. From 2008 to 2017, we recorded eight instances of opportunistic bird predation from mist nets (MNs) in a matrix mixing restored forest and fragments of semideciduous seasonal forest in southeastern Brazil, three t...

Mutualistic interactions repeatedly preserved across fragmented landscapes can scale-up to form a spatial metanetwork describing the distribution of interactions across patches. We explored the structure of a bird seed-dispersal (BSD) metanetwork in 16 Neotropical forest fragments to test whether a distinct subset of BSD-interactions may mediate la...

A percepção de serviços ecossistêmicos é uma ferramenta no estabelecimento de ações para conservação de ecossistemas, em especial em áreas cobertas pela Floresta Atlântica como Ubatuba – SP, onde habitam comunidades que utilizam serviços gerados pela natureza. Este estudo avaliou a percepção sobre serviços ecossistêmicos de 20 agricultores familiar...

Urbanization is a major threat to biodiversity. Nevertheless, an important number of species has been recorded to live, and even thrive, within urban centers. Bird diversity has often been studied among greenspace networks, where most urban biodiversity is sheltered. Although a few studies have directly addressed urban bird conservation, they have...

Contribution to a local Newspaper for scientific divulgation in Portuguese

The landscape composition of Brazilian cities has been changing, with the growing of the so-called "gated communities" (LF), with a clear temporal and spatial change in land use. These LF host forest green areas (AVF), and usually are located outside the central areas, in formerly agricultural or natural sites. Little is known about the importance...

Bird-window collisions are a dramatic cause of bird mortality globally. In Latin America, statistics are generally very scarce and/or inaccessible so the frequency of such incidents is still poorly understood. Nevertheless, civilians have applied preventive methods (e.g. adhesive bird-of-prey decals) sparsely but, to our knowledge, no study has eva...

Book available for download at: http://meioambiente.sorocaba.sp.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/livro-parque-da-bio-verso-completa.pdf Parque Natural Municipal Corredores de Biodiversidade: pesquisas e perspectivas futuras Publicação reúne informações que servirão como base para políticas públicas para a unidade de conservação de Sorocaba Coorde...

Ecological restoration aims to retrieve not only the structure but also the functionality of ecosystems. Frugivorous birds may play an important role in this process due to their efficiency in seed dispersal. Color perception in these animals is highly developed, than the colors of fleshy fruits may provide important clues for choosing plant specie...

We report the first record of a black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus; Primates: Callitrichidae) in Carlos Botelho State Park, southeastern Brazil, which is one of the most important protected areas in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The species is listed as globally threatened by the IUCN, and our record and further confirmation of the eff...

The flight initiation distance has been used either to understand the cost-benefit trade-offs related to the risk of predation or as an important tool for wildlife managers. Although this variable is well-discussed for temperate regions, it is still poorly known in the Neotropics. Here we analyze the escape behavior of birds from southeastern Brazi...

Cascade effect of insectivorous birds on arthropod abundance and herbivory Bruna Leone Gagetti, Suelen Barbosa Moraes Rodrigues & Augusto João Piratelli Birds are important predators of arthropods and may influence their abundance and diversity, which in turn can affect leaf herbivory and the adaptive value of plants. Here we tested the top-down...

The study of ecosystem services can support strategic planning in order to emphasize the need for conservation of natural environments, by formulating arguments accessible to most people. One problem that fits in this context is the management of protected areas that, undergoing several threats, need strategies to convince the public on the importa...

Atualmente os projetos de restauração ecológica têm dado grande importância aos processos ecológicos que envolvem a flora e a fauna. Dessa forma, estudos que visam conhecer a avifauna e sua composição em reflorestamentos em estágios iniciais podem auxiliar em futuras ações de restauração. Este estudo teve como objetivo conhecer a avifauna de seis r...

Durante uma expedição ao Parque Estadual Ilha do Cardoso, em Cananéia, SP, dois indivíduos de maria-da-restinga (Phylloscartes kronei, Aves: Rynchocyclidae) foram capturados com uma rede de neblina de malha 36 mm em uma área de restinga (25o 12.243’S e 47o 59.502’O), no Núcleo Marujá. Esse registro fortuito ressalta a relevância desta Unidade de...

In this study we tested for density-dependent relationships between visitation rates of the Scale-throated Hermit (Phaethornis eurynome) and the plant density and flower number of the bromeliad Vriesea incurvata, by comparing plots with varying densities of this bromeliad. Eight 100 m2 plots were established at least 200 m from each other; four plo...

Nós buscamos dados sobre a avifauna de Sorocaba em documentos disponibilizados na internet, compreendendo artigos científicos, trabalhos de conclusão de cursos, dissertações, resumos de congressos, relatórios técnicos e livros, além de observações pessoais dos autores. No total, foram compilados registros confiáveis de 280 espécies, pertencentes a...

This book is organized by chapters from several authors, who discussed recent subjects and questions on conservation biology,

resumo. – sobreposição entre reprodução e muda de penas em aves do cerrado e da Mata atlântica, brasil. Através de programas de marcação e recaptura, foram estudadas comunidades de aves nos estados de Mato Grosso do Sul (Cerrado -1994 a 1996) e Rio de Janeiro (Mata Atlântica -2001 a 2005), Brasil, com o propósito de determinar períodos de muda de p...

This study aimed to characterize the avifauna associated to the Sorocaba River, a typical urban river in Southeastern Brazil. It crosses the city having the same name, along which different human activities are carried out as recreation and fishing. There, several bird species might find sites for resting, feeding and nesting. We surveyed birds wee...

The feeding habits of Rufous Gnateater Conopophaga lineata (Conopophagidae), an understorey groundforaging insectivorous bird, was investigated. The study took place in a patch of second-growth Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil, and was based on fecal samples of birds captured by mist-nets and collections of ground-dwelling invertebrates sampl...

Abstract: This study aimed to characterize the avifauna associated to the Sorocaba River, a typical urban river in Southeastern Brazil. It crosses the city having the same name, along which different human activities are carried out as recreation and fishing. There, several bird species might find sites for resting, feeding and nesting. We surveyed...

Seed and birds were important mobile links to maintenance of connectivity because they were related to long distance plant dispersal. At the same time, seed input is a tool that can help to monitor forest restoration success and resilience. A quantitative approach was applied to compare seed rain, dispersal distances and bird communities in a prist...

This work describes behavioral pattern of free-living individuals of Casmerodius albus (Great Egret), aiming to contribute to the biological knowledge of this species. Using an 8 × 30 binoculars and a 50 mm lens camera, field work was carried out between May and September 2001, by means of continuous naturalistic observations and focal-animal, thro...

Ethogram of the Great Egret, Casmerodius albus. This work describes behavioral pattern of free‑living individuals of Casmerodius albus (Great Egret), aiming to contribute to the biological knowledge of this species. Using an 8 x 30 binoculars and a 50 mm lens camera, field work was carried out between May and September 2001, by means of continuous...

Aiming to evaluate the potential of Passerine birds as bioindicators of forest fragmentation, we studied the avifauna in the mountain region of the state of Rio de Janeiro by mist-netting between 2001 and 2005. We sampled six sites, including four small fragments (from 4 to 64 ha) in an agricultural area (Teresópolis), one second-growth forest (440...

We investigated bird communities in Mato Grosso do Sul, central Brazil, from July 1994 to December 1996. We sampled birds with mist nets in 14 study sites, including native (cerrado, cerradão and gallery forest) and exotic (Eucalyptus) vegetation. Ninety-nine species from 21 families were represented in 1306 captures, including Antilophia galeata,...

Este trabalho foi realizado em mata secundária no Município de Itatiaia, Estado do Rio de Janeiro (22º30'S e 44º30'W) próximo ao Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, com o objeitvo de descrever a comunidade de aves ali presente. Foram amostrados três tipos vegetacionais distintos: reflorestamento, bosque e pomar, tendo sido realizadas 19 excursões entre 19...