Opposing deer and caterpillar foraging preferences may prevent reductions in songbird prey biomass in historically overbrowsed forests.

serotina again showed higher caterpillar biomass than other species and was the only tree species where bird exclusion resulted in increased caterpillar biomass (Figure 2 d), though the effect of exclusion on two other species approached significance ( A. saccharum , p = .052; P. pensylvanica , p = .059). 3.2 Role of caterpillar biomass and tree species on predation effects Both available prey biomass and tree species showed an effect on avian predation response (as measured by the log response ratio, LRR) during all sample periods, but available prey biomass explained over twice the variance in avian predation response as tree species identity in all sampling periods except June 2012 ( R 2 C in Table 1 ).

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