Abstract
Bird species partition ecological space due to divergent foraging behavior and substrate use. The volume of ecological space (potential number of niches) increase with vegetation complexity.
At the same time, foraging behavior might be constrained by phylogenetically conserved morphology. Thus, relationships between foraging behavior, morphology, phylogeny, and vegetation complexity might shed critical light on resource partitioning and species coexistence in communities.
Australia is an ideal place to investigate these issues because it hosts an ancient, autochthonous radiation of passerines. We studied foraging strategies in passerines in woodlands and forests of eastern Australia along a 3,000 km long latitudinal transect spanning from the tropics to southern temperate regions.