Although fragmentation is widely studied in birds, it is unclear exactly how Neotropical forest songbirds react to different levels of deforestation and habitat fragmentation. In the Upper San Luis valley in Costa Rica, there is a rich history of relatively small-scale human-dominated land use which has resulted in a landscape matrix of forest and various agricultural practices. This study assessed habitat use in a mixed-use landscape by a frugivorous forest songbird, the Long-tailed Manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis), at several spatial scales. Results showed that relative rank of habitat use differed by scale. In addition, results indicated that low-intensity cattle ranching, which makes use of forested hedgerows and windbreaks, may provide necessary habitat structure for some forest songbirds, such as the Long-tailed Manakin. However, there is likely to be a threshold for the amount of open habitat in a landscape that Long-tailed Manakins and other forest birds will tolerate.
