Logging is one of the most pervasive threats to biodiversity in tropical forests. In this study, we concurrently
examined the responses of the avian frugivore community and the community of fruiting trees to
past logging in a tropical forest in northeastern India. We predicted that the abundance of, and visitation
by large-bodied frugivores would be lower in logged forests, resulting in reduced seed dispersal and
recruitment of biotically dispersed species (especially large-seeded species). Data were collected from
two logged and unlogged sites using (a) belt transects for estimating avian frugivore abundance (b) fruiting
tree watches to quantify frugivore visitation and (c) vegetation plots to characterize recruitment. Our
results show that differences in the abundance of bird species between logged and unlogged sites was
correlated with body mass, with larger species being scarcer and smaller species more abundant in
logged areas. Correspondingly, visitation rates by large avian frugivores was lower in logged compared
with unlogged sites. Finally, biotically dispersed tree species, especially large-seeded species, had lower
recruitment in logged forests, potentially due to lowered visitation rates and decreased fruit removal by
large bodied avian frugivores. In the long term, these differences in recruitment may result in a tree community
shift towards small-seeded biotically dispersed species and abiotically dispersed species in
logged areas.