Observation procedure
Whenever I observed a bird fly into a fruiting tree, I noted the species
and its time of arrival. I then watched the bird to see if it fed, and
when possible noted when it left the tree or when I noticed the bird was
no longer present. I did not generally note how many fruits a bird ate
in one visit. Each observation only notes the presence of a bird and
whether it fed or was not observed doing so during that visit. Each bird
arrival was counted separately as one observation.
T his methodology led to understatement of the actual number of
fruits consumed by some of the species. The best example of this can be
seen by looking at my records of Fiery-billed Aracari
(Pteroglossus frantzii ) feeding in Willy’s Huevos
de Caballo . Although my original records noted it only fed one time in
that tree and was in the tree from 7:58-8:01 AM, a video I took of that
bird showed that it grabbed 18 “fruits” (arils) one at a time in that
time-span. Some other large birds also ate numerous fruits in one visit,
while most smaller birds, which were generally in a tree for shorter
periods, usually only grabbed one fruit at a time. Given the
variability, it is clear there were more actual feedings than my tables
show.
I constructed two tables (Appendices 1and 2, which can be found at
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n5tb2rc0q) which included all my visits to
each tree, and showed the total number of visits by each species, its
arrival and departure times (if noted), and whether or not it fed.