Electronic Supplementary Material
The paradox of invasion in birds: Competitive superiority or ecological
opportunism?
Daniel Sol, Ignasi Bartomeus & Andrea Griffin
Table S1. Cities, villages and neighborhoods where transects took place.
Location
Cardiff
Charlestown
Dudley
Gesmond
Glenbrook
Gosfor
Hamilton
Harold Myers park
Hazelbrook
Jesmond
Katoomba
Kotara
Ku-Ring-Gai National park
Manly
Merewether
Nelson bay
New Lambton
Newcastle east
Newcastle west
Sydney
Wallsend
Latitude
Longitude
-32.55
151.39
-32.57
151.41
-32.59
151.43
-32.90
151.69
-33.46
150.37
-33.25
151.21
-32.54
151.45
-32.89
151.68
-33.72
150.45
-32.53
151.41
-33.43
150.19
-32.55
151.41
-33.62
151.24
-33.48
151.17
-32.56
151.44
-32.43
152.8
-32.54
151.42
-32.55
151.47
-32.55
151.45
-33.51
151.12
-32.53
151.41
1
Table S2. Abundance (total number of individuals observed) of each species recorded
during the transects in the three habitats studied.
Family
Anatidae
Accipitridae
Ardeidae
Charadriidae
Falconidae
Laridae
Pelecanidae
Phalacrocoracidae
Threskiornithidae
Threskiornithidae
Columbidae
Columbidae
Columbidae
Columbidae
Columbidae
Halcyonidae
Megapodiidae
Cuculidae
Rallidae
Rallidae
Climacteridae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Corvidae
Hirundinidae
Maluridae
Maluridae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Meliphagidae
Latin name
Chenonetta jubata
Haliaeetus leucogaster
Egretta novaehollandiae
Vanellus miles
Falco peregrinus
Larus novaehollandiae
Pelecanus conspicillatus
Phalacrocorax carbo
Threskiornis molucca
Threskiornis spinicollis
Phaps chalcoptera
Streptopelia chinensis
Geopelia humeralis
Columba livia
Geophaps lophotes
Dacelo novaeguineae
Alectura lathami
Cacomantis flabelliformis
Porphyrio porphyrio
Gallinula tenebrosa
Cormobates leucophaeus
Dicrurus bracteatus
Daphoenositta chrysoptera
Corvus coronoides
Grallina cyanoleuca
Rhipidura fuliginosa
Strepera graculina
Rhipidura leucophrys
Cracticus nigrogularis
Coracina novaehollandiae
Psophodes olivaceus
Coracina papuensis
Pachycephala pectoralis
Oriolus sagittatus
Gymnorhina tibicen
Cracticus torquatus
Sphecotheres viridis
Hirundo neoxena
Malurus cyaneus
Malurus lamberti
Anthochaera carunculata
Lichenostomus chrysops
Anthochaera chrysoptera
Philemon corniculatus
Lichmera indistincta
Meliphaga lewinii
Manorina melanocephala
Manorina melanophrys
Phylidonyris novaehollandiae
English name
Australian wood duck
White-bellied sea-eagle
White-faced heron
Masked lapwing
Peregrine falcon
Silver gull
Australian pelican
Phalacrocorax spp.
Australian white ibis
Straw-necked ibis
Common Bronzewing
Spotted turtle-dove
Bar-shouldered Dove
Feral pigeon
Crested pigeon
Laughing kookaburra
Alectura lathami
Fan-tailed cuckoo
Purple swamphen
Dusky moorhen
White-throated treecreper
Splangled drongo
Varied sitella
Australian raven
Magpie-lark
Grey Fantail
Pied Currawong
Willie-wagtail
Pied Butcherbird
Black-faced cuckoo-shrike
Eastern Whipbird
White-bellied cuckoo-shrike
Golden Whistler
Olive-backed oriole
Australian magpie
Grey Butcherbird
Figbird
Welcome swallow
Superb fairy-wren
Variegated fairy-wren
Red Wattlebird
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Brush Wattlebird
Noisy friabird
Brown Honeyeater
Lewin's Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Bell miner
New holland honeyeater
Status Wildland Suburbs Urban
Native
11
2
6
Native
1
0
0
Native
0
0
1
Native
0
2
4
Native
1
1
0
Native
0
0
27
Native
0
0
1
Native
0
0
1
Native
0
0
3
Native
0
6
0
Native
1
0
0
Exotic
0
53
25
Native
1
0
0
Exotic
1
1
125
Native
0
24
4
Native
30
12
2
Native
1
0
0
Native
1
0
0
Native
0
4
0
Native
1
0
0
Native
3
0
0
Native
0
0
2
Native
2
0
0
Native
19
16
12
Native
0
11
12
Native
11
0
0
Native
7
17
4
Native
0
0
4
Native
1
0
0
Native
4
3
4
Native
12
0
0
Native
2
0
0
Native
5
0
0
Native
2
0
0
Native
30
37
20
Native
7
2
0
Native
0
1
1
Native
0
0
7
Native
6
0
0
Native
18
0
0
Native
10
8
1
Native
9
0
0
Native
1
2
1
Native
2
0
0
Native
0
0
1
Native
11
0
0
Native
34
110
31
Native
8
0
0
Native
12
0
0
2
Meliphagidae
Menuridae
Pardalotidae
Pardalotidae
Pardalotidae
Pardalotidae
Pardalotidae
Passeridae
Passeridae
Petroicidae
Petroicidae
Ptilonorhynchidae
Pycnonotidae
Sturnidae
Sturnidae
Zosteropidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Psittacidae
Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Menura novaehollandiae
Sericornis frontalis
Acanthiza lineata
Pardalotus punctatus
Acanthiza pusilla
Origma solitaria
Passer domesticus
Neochmia temporalis
Eopsaltria australis
Petroica rosea
Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Pycnonotus jocosus
Acridotheres tristis
Sturnus vulgaris
Zosterops lateralis
Calyptorhynchus funereus
Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus
Glossopsitta concinna
Platycercus elegans
Platycercus eximius
Callocephalon fimbriatum
Cacatua galerita
Trichoglossus haematodus
Psephotus haematonotus
Eolophus roseicapillus
Alisterus scapularis
Eastern spinebill
Superb lyrebird
White-browed Scrubwren
Striated Thornbill
Spotted Pardalote
Brown thornbill
Rock warbler
House sparrow
Red-browed finch
Eastern yellow robin
Rose robin
Satin bowerbird
Red-whiskered bulbul
Common myna
European starling
Silvereye
Calyptorhynchus funereus
Scaly-breasted lorikeet
Musk lorikeet
Crimson rosella
Eastern Rosella
Gang-gang cockatoo
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Rainbow lorikeet
Red-rumped parrot
Galah
Australian King parrot
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Exotic
Native
Native
Native
Native
Exotic
Exotic
Exotic
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
Native
4
1
16
12
10
5
1
0
1
6
1
4
0
0
0
5
1
11
7
15
26
0
50
19
1
3
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
0
4
19
5
0
1
7
0
0
33
1
12
58
0
7
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
49
0
0
0
0
0
189
34
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
30
14
0
6
0
Table S3. Proportion of seconds spent in the centre of the experimental patch as a function of the exotic or native status of the species (n = 274
observations). Gradient and species were random effects. The model on the left is a GLMM with binomial error and logit link. The model on the
right is a MCMC GLMM with the same structure of errors. LCL and UCL refer, respectively, to the lower and upper 95% confidence interval.
Fixed effects
Intercept
Status
Exotic
Native
Parameter Std. Error
z
-10.157
6.757
-1.50
0.000*
11.741
7.629
1.54
P
0.133
0.124
Fixed effects
Intercept**
Status
Exotic
Native
Posterior mean
-21.52
LCL
-55.19
UCL
15.91
P
0.174
0.00
20.56
-20.62
60.98
0.262
Random effects
Random effects
Species
165.710
12.872
Species
1148.00
113.61 3013.00
Experimental site
48.811
6.986
Experimental site
236.00
26.98
576.80
*The significance of the parameters is relative to urbanised exotics, which is set to be zero.
**The prior for the binomial models was: list(R = list(V=1, nu=1e+06), G=list(G1=list(V=1,nu=0), G2=list(V=1,nu=0)))
-
4
Table S4. Frequency of agonistic interactions initiated and won for the eight species
most often involved in encounters. Exotic species are identified with an asterisk.
Species
Australian magpie
Common myna*
Feral pigeon*
Noyse miner
Crested pigeon
Australian raven
European starling*
Magpie-lark
Attacks
39
8
9
22
0
15
0
2
Attacked
12
37
2
9
7
3
6
6
ChiSquare
14.29
18.68
4.45
5.45
7.00
8.00
6.00
2.00
P
0.0002
< 0.0001
0.0348
0.0196
0.0082
0.0047
0.0143
0.1573
Wins Loses
40
11
6
39
9
2
19
12
0
7
16
2
0
6
3
5
ChiSquare
16.49
24.20
4.45
1.58
7.00
10.88
6.00
0.50
5
P
< 0.0001
< 0.0001
0.0348
0.2087
0.0082
0.0010
0.0143
0.4795
Table S5. MCMC GLMMs* modelling variation in response to experimental food provisioning (Binomial error, 0 = ignore food, 1 = feed food)
and flight distance (Gaussian error) in exotic and native individuals found in either urban or non-urban (suburbs and wildland) habitats. Gradient
and species were random effects. LCL and UCL refer, respectively, to the lower and upper 95% confidence interval.
Opportunistic foraging
All species (n = 230 observations)
Posterior
mean
Fixed effects
Intercept
3.867
Urbanised exotics
0.000**
Urbanised natives
-2.401
Non-urbanised birds***
-4.327
LCL
1.189
-4.954
-6.371
UCL
6.472
0.362
-2.236
Random effects
Species
Gradient
0.997
0.000
16.63
15.21
7.275
5.912
P
0.006
0.080
< 0.001
-
Species > 5 observations (n = 214 observations)
Posterior
mean
LCL
UCL
P
3.561
0.239
6.592
0.048
0.000
-2.187
-5.518
0.782
0.168
-4.470
-6.824
-2.367
< 0.001
11.07
123.4
1.215
0.000
30.36
16.55
-
Flight distance
All species (n = 370 observations)
Posterior
mean
Fixed effects
Intercept
0.346
Urbanised exotics
0.000
Urbanised natives
-0.054
Non-urbanised birds
0.375
LCL
0.139
-0.252
0.221
UCL
0.577
0.133
0.523
P
0.002
0.538
< 0.001
Random effects
Species
0.061
0.227
-
0.139
Species > 5 observations (n = 334 observations)
Posterior
mean
LCL
UCL
P
0.294
0.071
0.513
0.010
0.000
-0.029
-0.229
0.159
0.778
0.459
0.307
0.612
<0.001
0.131
0.041
0.269
-
6
*The prior for the binomial models was: list(R = list(V=1, nu=1e+06), G=list(G1=list(V=1,nu=0), G2=list(V=1,nu=0))); For Gaussian models,
this was: list(R=list(V=0.0000001, n=-2), G=list(G1=list(V=0.0000001, n=-2))); The specifications to run the MCMC models were: nitt=500000,
burnin=250000, thin=250.
**The significance of the parameters is relative to urbanised exotics, which is set to be zero.
***During model simplification (Crawley 2002), non-urbanised exotic and native species were grouped together as they did not differ in the
response variables.
7
Figure S1. Abundances (median and percentiles) of the 15 most abundant bird species
in the study area. The exotic birds have been identified by their name.
150
Common
myna
100
50
House
sparrow
European
starling
0
Abundance
Feral
pigeon
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Species
8
Figure S2. Number of sights of exotic (black dots) and native (white dots) species in the
Sydney basin, Australia, based on the two surveys (1977-1981 and 1998-2002) carried
out for the Atlas of birds of Australia (http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/ourprojects/atlas-birdata.html). The names identify the exotic species investigated in the
present study (the feral pigeon is not shown as being so common in cities and villages
the number of sightings should have been too high).
1800
1600
No. sightings Atlas 2
1400
Spotted
Turtle-Dove
1200
Common
myna
European
starling
1000
800
Passer
domesticus
600
400
200
0
0
200
400
600
800
1000
No sightings Atlas 1
9
Figure S3. Successes (black) and failures (grey) in historical introductions of species
that eventually became established in Australia. The information comes from a
previously compiled global database (Sol et al. 2005), based mainly in Long (1981) and
Lever (2005).
Common Myna
Common Starling
Common Blackbird
Red-whiskered Bulbul
European Goldfinch
European Greenfinch
Nutmeg Mannikin
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
House Sparrow
Skylark
Spotted Turtle-Dove
Rock Dove
Mallard
Common Pheasant
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Number of introductions
10
Figure S4. Abundances (median and percentiles) of exotic bird species along the
gradient of urbanization. Note that the scale of the Y-axes differs between species to
improve clarity.
Feral pigeon
House sparrow
urban
vsuburb
w oodland
Urban
Suburb
Wildland
10
0
5
Abundance
30
20
0
10
Abundance
30
20
10
0
Abundance
40
15
Common myna
urban
vsuburb
w oodland
urban
Urban Suburb Wildland
w oodland
Spotted-turtledove
Red-whiskered bulbul
urban
vsuburb
w oodland
Urban Suburb Wildland
3
2
0
1
Abundance
15
10
0
5
Abundance
10
5
0
Abundance
15
4
European starling
vsuburb
Urban Suburb Wildland
urban
vsuburb
w oodland
Urban Suburb Wildland
urban
vsuburb
w oodland
Urban Suburb Wildland
11