Camera Traps on Bird Surveys

In this study, we tested the performance of camera traps as an approach for bird surveys, compared to point count. We detected 41 bird species using camera traps (effectiveness of 89%) and 24 bird species using point counts (effectiveness of 52%). Among those, a total of 19 species were detected by both methods. Given the species accumulation curves, the richness detected by 6 point counts can be achieved in 11 camera days. Moreover, there is a significant difference in species composition detected by camera traps and point counts (p-value < 0.01).

Furthermore, camera traps performs best (mean effectiveness of 82% across farms) during the wet period, presumably due to low habitat structure. Given the complementary of point counts and camera traps, we suggested both methods should be used simultaneously for assessing the diversity in farmland ecosystem.