Seed dispersal by vertebrates is the dominant mode of dispersal indry and wet tropical forest, often with > 75% of the tree speciesproducing fleshy fruit (Howe & Smallwood, 1982; Willson et al.,1989; Ganesh & Davidar, 2001). Birds are thought to be espe-cially critical dispersal agents for maintaining tree species compo-sition in tropical forests (Sekercioglu, 2006), but are often highlythreatened by hunting or habitat degradation (Cramer et al.,2007). Changes in animal abundance and movement as a resultof large-scale land conversion might fundamentally alter or dis-rupt seed dispersal (Uriarte et al., 2011; McConkey et al., 2012;McConkey & O’Farrill, 2016). This can have negative conse-quences for recruitment of tree species (Cordeiro & Howe,2001) and modify the forest species composition (Moran et al.,2009), which underpin overall biodiversity in such landscapes.Tree species, which have highly mobile large dispersal agents, arepredicted to be less sensitive to habitat fragmentation (Montoyaet al., 2008). However, large dispersers are often the first to beextirpated in degraded and fragmented forests (Cramer et al.,2007; Kurten, 2013). In particular, such shifts from large dis-persers to smaller dispersers directly reduce dispersal distances(Moran et al., 2009; Markl et al., 2012).Plant species depend on seed dispersal for recruitment, recolo-nization and range expansion (Jordano et al., 2011). Withouteffective seed dispersal, tree species in fragmented landscapesmight be lost with considerable implications for biodiversity conservation (McConkey et al., 2012). It is thus imperative to assessseed dispersal patterns if one wants to understand the implicationsof habitat fragmentation, to predict the probability of forest recov-ery on abandoned agricultural land and to implement efficientecological restoration strategies for degraded tropical forest land-scapes (Kettle, 2012). Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd. ex C.DC.(Meliaceae) is a particularly interesting species in this regard as it is not only of conservation concern and economic value but is dis-persed by large birds (Ganesh & Davidar, 2001). In disturbedforest it has been shown that D. malabricum is predominantly dis-persed by the Malabar grey hornbill (Ocyceros griseus Latham)(Manjunath, 2003; Shivanna et al., 2003). This hornbill species isknown as a relatively strong flier crossing over varied matrices between forest fragments, and so it is predicted to be relativelyrobust to land use change (Raman & Mudappa, 2003).