Mixed-species flocks are a good example of sensitive species interactions that can be affected by human activities, with flocks sometimes changing their form even if all the constituent species are still present in an area. The past few decades have seen a paradigm shift in conservation, from focusing on single species to trying to protect and manage the webs of connections between species and the ecological processes that flow from them. We were also motivated by conservation-related questions. Liping Zhou outfitted for a cool autumn day’s fieldwork. We looked at the rolling mountains of northern Guangxi and the more substantial mountains in Yunnan and wondered, what’s up there? In the lowlands of south China, nearer the coast, one can find a flock system dominated and led by a super-species complex of songbirds called fulvettas ( Alcippe hueti or A. Because of the range of elevations here, within a relatively small area one can see many different kinds of biomes, from tropical rainforest at the southern edges to treeless alpine grassland. Bordering the Himalayas to the east, this is one of the great bird diversity hotspots of the world. The Hengduan Mountains of southwest China are a good place for someone who likes these kinds of questions (and likes misty mountains!). We wonder what the flocks are like up in that place: are they larger or smaller than what we’ve seen here? Are they led by the same species that leads the flocks down here? What do they sound like, how do they behave? Have you ever looked up at a mountaintop in the distance and wondered what birds might be living there? When mixed-species flocking fanatics like ourselves see that mountain, another set of questions catches our imagination. Goodale, The Condor: Ornithological Applications. Linked paper: The response of mixed-species bird flocks to anthropogenic disturbance and elevational variation in southwest China by L.
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