[Effect of fire on understory birds of a gallery forest in central Brazil]

Habitat burning may cause significant population and community changes in animals and plants, specially when the humans increase fire frequency. We mist-netted the understory birds of a gallery forest from the cerrado region of central Brazil before and after a fire of unknown cause which burned the Ecological Reserve of the University of Brasília, Brasília, DF, in September 1987. We conducted mist-netting mostly during the morning, using 12 mist-nets distributed on 2.5 ha in the interior and border of the forest. We captured 137 individuals of 37 species, 51 individuals of 21 species during 135.5 net/h before the fire, and 98 individuals of 33 species during 233 net/h after the fire. The bird community as a whole did not change after the fire. The observed changes in the bird community were related to the type of habitat used by some species of birds than to their diet. Species typical to gallery forests are probably less adapted to habitat burning than species that occur in other habitats and may be suffering a decrease or a disturbance in their population structure, revealing an important problem of cerrado bird conservation.