Abstract
In order to identify the frugivorous bird species with the potential to disperse the seeds of broad-leaved trees and herbaceous plants into conifer plantations, we caught birds with mist nets and sampled their faeces in a Japanese cedar Cryptomeria japonica plantation and neighbouring areas in southern Kyushu, Japan. In the autumn-winter period, intact seeds of six broad-leaved tree species and one herbaceous plant species were recovered from the faeces of nine individuals of five frugivorous bird species: seeds of Maesa japonica and Rubus buergeri from the faeces of the Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus; Eurya japonica, Callicarpa japonica and the herbaceous plant Tubocapsicum anomalum from the faeces of the Pale Thrush Turudus pallidus, E. japonica from the faeces of the Red-billed Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea, R. buergeri from the faeces of the Japanese Bush Warbler Cettia diphone, and Celastrus orbiculatus from the faeces of the Japanese White-eye Zosterops japonicus. In the spring-summer period, intact seeds of one broad-leaved tree species, Rubus palmatus var. palmatus, were recovered from the faeces of the Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius. It has been shown that these six frugivorous bird species at least have a role as the seed dispersers of broad-leaved trees and herbaceous plants into conifer plantations.
