Effects of selective logging (50 years ago) on habitat use and ranging behaviour of a forest understorey bird (red-tailed bristlebill, Bleda syndactyla) in Uganda

To understand the effects of selective logging on animals we compared habitat use and ranging behaviour of a common understorey passerine bird, the red‐tailed bristlebill (Bleda syndactyla), in logged and unlogged forest in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. The secondary forest had been selectively logged about 50 years ago, and differed in vegetation structure from the unlogged, primary forest in particular by having a denser understorey. Home range size of radio‐tagged bristlebills was 10–20% larger (depending on data sample used) in unlogged forest compared with logged forest, but the difference was not significant. Movement rates during 1‐h observation periods were highest in unlogged forest. The bristlebill has been characterized as a bird of dense understorey vegetation, and data from unlogged forest in the present study suggested that areas with dense understorey were used more often than expected. In logged forest, no habitat preferences were found, probably because the forest had a dense understorey throughout. Assuming that smaller home ranges and lower movement rates indicate better habitat, there was no evidence that bristlebills were negatively affected by logging. The preference for dense understorey in unlogged forest suggests that the bristlebill may benefit from selective logging because this leads to an increase in dense understorey.