Plant and bird interactions in Colombia

Data was gathered between February 2012 and February 2013 in Risaralda (Cordillera Central), Colombia. Fieldwork was carried out in two protected areas (Santuario de Flora y Fauna Otun Quimbaya and Regional Park Ucumari), in a late-successional forest. The first data set includes the observation of fruit removal by frugivorous birds on fleshy-fruited plants. The interactions were recorded in the morning (6:30 am to 12:30 m), in 10 plots (100 x 20 m) distributed along an elevational gradient (1800-2700 m). Each plot was separated by 100 m of elevation. In total, there was a sampling effort of 1200 h of observation, covering twice the dry and wet season in the study area. The interaction data set contains fruit removal of each frugivore on each plant species, the taxonomy of each plant species and each bird involved in the interactions. Fruit removal is the total number of fruits that each bird species took from each plant species. The data set includes the morphological traits of birds that were measured in the museums, four individual per species. The second data set includes the information of the number of seedlings recruited per plant species in two surveys. The surveys were carried out in March 2012 and February 2013 in 600 subplots (1m2) that were located randomly inside the plots (60 subplots per plot). This data set has three network metrics that measured the interaction level from the plant´s perspective and the functional identity of the bird traits that visited each plant species (community weighted mean value). The seed mass of this data set is the dry weight of each seed of a plant species. The plant traits were recorded in the field (plant height and crop mass) and the laboratory (fruit length, fruit width and seed mass).Fruit and seed size were obtained from 20 to 30 fruits/seeds per plant species (two or three individuals per species).
The purpose of this data was to measure the trait effect on fruit removal and seedling recruitment in a tropical mountain.