Fig-Seed Predation and Dispersal by Birds

Observations of birds eating the figs of a single Picas continifolia (H.B.K.) tree in Costa Rican lowland deciduous forest indicate that a crop of ca 100,000 figs was exhausted in five days, of which 95,000 were removed during the first three days. Birds processed an estimated average of 20,828 figs/day (65.1% of the total daily consumption), and the difference (34.9%) represented fruits consumed by mammals and/or those falling to the ground. Parrots were responsible for 78 percent of the total taken by and 50.6 percent of the figs leaving the tree per day. Use by these seed predators represents fruit (and seed) waste. The ” avian dispersers (e.g., orioles, tanagers, trogons, flycatchers) took only ca 4600 figs/day. An estimated 4.42 X 10 fig seeds were lost each day, 36.2 percent of them to parrots and 63.8 percent to destruction by invertebrates (mostly agaonid wasps). 6.3 percent of the seeds leaving the tree per day are actually dispersed undamaged by birds.