Home-range size and movements of Chestnut-backed Antbird (Myrmeciza exsul), a forest specialist bird, in fragmented landscapes in southwestern Costa Rica

The effect of fragmented landscapes on species dispersal is receiving significant attention with the aim of maintaining connectivity among animal populations. Landscape connectivity influences the spatial distribution of a species by making some areas accessible and others inaccessible. Among tropical birds, understory insectivorous species are among the most sensitive to fragmentation owing to their limited dispersal abilities. This sensitivity to dispersal makes the group potentially valuable as focal species for planning the connectivity of landscapes. Through telemetry methods, banded individuals, capture-recapture, and observations we evaluated individuals Chestnut-backed Antbird (Myrmeciza exsul), a common non-migratory understory insectivore with low mobility and a forest specialist, to determine its home-range size and movements within the agricultural matrix in two fragmented landscapes of southwestern Costa Rica. Los Cusingos Landscape (LCL) had 56% forest area, woodland, and pasture with trees