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Here we investigated the effects of bird and plant traits, and distance to forest fragments, on the seed rain using a tree‐planting experiment replicated in 12 deforested sites in Brazil. Factors were fruit traits of pioneer trees (wind‐dispersed, bird‐dispersed with lipids or with carbohydrates and controls) and distance (10, 50, 300 m) from forest fragments.

We found that density and richness of birds and seeds decreased exponentially with distance from fragments, yet these effects were minor compared to the effects of fruit traits on the structure of the seed rain.

Overall, plots with fleshy fruited pioneers attracted much greater bird activity and seed dispersal than plots with wind‐dispersal pioneers and the controls. For instance, plots with carbohydrate‐rich fruits received more than twice the average species richness and density of birds and seeds of plots with lipid‐rich pioneer trees, surpassing wind‐dispersed pioneers by more than 80%, and controls by over 90%. Furthermore, the fruit trait treatments resulted in morphological shifts in the average traits of visiting birds. Significant differences in bill gape and flight capacities (wing‐loading) were associated with the differences in the seed rain associated with each treatment.

Synthesis and applications. Understanding how trait‐matching processes mediating mutualistic seed dispersal by frugivores interact with distance‐dependent dispersal limitation on deforested tropical landscapes is critical for improving forest restoration efforts. This is especially relevant in the context of applied nucleation. As shown here, avian seed dispersal can thus be manipulated in restoration projects in order to increase connectivity and speed up forest recovery and the provision of the multiple ecosystem services that follow forest succession.

We compared the spring migration strategies of Fork‐tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus s. savana) that breed at south‐temperate latitudes (i.e., austral migrants) vs. tropical latitudes (i.e., intratropical migrants) in South America. We hypothesized that austral migrant flycatchers are more time‐selected than intratropical migrants during spring migration. As such, we predicted that austral migrants, which migrate further than intratropical migrants, will migrate at a faster rate and that the rate of migration for austral migrants will be positively correlated with the onset of spring migration.

We attached light‐level geolocators to Fork‐tailed Flycatchers at two tropical breeding sites in Brazil and at two south‐temperate breeding sites in Argentina and tracked their movements until the following breeding season.

Of 286 geolocators that were deployed, 37 were recovered ~1 year later, of which 28 provided useable data. Rate of spring migration did not differ significantly between the two groups, and only at one site was there a significantly positive relationship between date of initiation of spring migration and arrival date.

This represents the first comparison of individual migratory strategies among conspecific passerines breeding at tropical vs. temperate latitudes and suggests that austral migrant Fork‐tailed Flycatchers in South America are not more time‐selected on spring migration than intratropical migrant conspecifics. Low sample sizes could have diminished our power to detect differences (e.g., between sexes), such that further research into the mechanisms underpinning migratory strategies in this poorly understood system is necessary.