Browsing by Author "Prys-Jones, Robert"

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    Effects of natural vegetation, fire and alien plant invasion on bird species assemblages in mountain fynbos of the southwestern Cape Province, South Africa
    (1990) Fraser, Michael, 1957-; Prys-Jones, Robert
    The effects on birds of fine-scale differences in plant species assemblage and vegetation structure, and of two major disturbance factors (woody alien plant infestation and fire), were investigated in Mountain Fynbos at two sites in the southwestern Cape Province, South Africa. Three associated processes were also studied. These were the relative importance of three animal taxa as seed predators following fire, the extent to which an indigenous bird species ate alien Acacia cyclops fruits, and potentially dispersed its seeds, and the number of nectarivorous birds which visited an isolated nectar resource. Avian responses to fire in Mountain Fynbos varied according to season, locality and burning regime. Recently and cleanly burnt fynbos at a flat, low altitude, coastal site supported a distinctly non-fynbos avifauna, characterized by relatively large-bodied, ground-feeding, opportunistic species.
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    Factors affecting habitat separation in the pallid flycatcher Melaenornis pallidus and Marico flycatcher Melaenornis mariquensis
    (1987) Frost, Suzanne Kathleen; Prys-Jones, Robert
    Factors affecting habitat separation in Pallid Flycatchers Melaenornis pallidus and Marico Flycatchers Melaenornis mariquensis were studied from June 1980 to June 1982 at the Nylsvley Nature Reserve in the central Transvaal. The main emphasis of the study, which is divided into two sections, was to determine the effect of habitat and resource conditions on the flycatchers' foraging behaviour (Section I) and other aspects of their ecologies (Section II) with the aim of evaluating the relative importance of these effects in maintaining habitat separation between the two species.