We assessed habitat preference and population status of the Sichuan Jay (Perisoreus internigrans),a poorly known Chinese endemic bird,at two sites (Zhuoni and Jiuzhaigou) in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau between 2001 and 2004.Mean group size was 3.8 jays.Each group occupied a mean home range of 42.0 ha during the breeding season,and the mean internest distance was 2.7 km.These data indicated that the jays used less than ten percent of the available habitats and occurred at an overall density of only 0.6 jays per km2.Radio-tracked Sichuan Jays had a strong preference for mature montane coniferous forests and avoided areas dominated by shrubs,while the utilization of young conifers,grassland,and human residential habitat types did not differ significantly from the values expected from the home-range availabilities of these habitats generally.
The Three-toed Woodpecker subspecies Picoides tridactylus funebris is endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in China. No part of its life history was ever reported since its discovery in 1870. To close this gap, we observed foraging behavior of a pair between April and August 2007. A total of 117 observations (28 for male and 89 for female) were obtained by following the birds within their home-ranges using radio-tracking. P. t. funebris preferred foraging on live spruces and snags bigger than available with an average diameter of breast height (DBH) of 32.7 ± 9.2 cm. The most frequent foraging technique was pecking (39.8% of foraging time) and peeling (13.2%). Moreover, sap-sucking was observed more often in P. t. funebris than in P. t. alpinus, suggesting that P. t. funebris was more dependent on the tree sap than the other subspecies. We found distinct niche partitioning between the sexes with respect to use of three out of four investigated parameters of the foraging substrates. These differences were likely related to sexual dimorphism pronounced by slightly larger bill of the male. We concluded that the subspecies P. t. funebris displayed foraging behavior which was very similar to that of other subspecies of the Three-toed Woodpecker.
