Out of the Mists Comes Knowledge of Little-Known Endemics
Researchers band together to conserve avian populations
By Pablo Elizondo, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio); C. John Ralph, U.S. Forest Service; Jared D. Wolfe, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University.
In the morning mist, high in the mountains at one of Central America’s premier birding sites, three biologists clad in typical field garb chat quietly in Spanglish as they squish along a muddy trail, stopping occasionally to carefully remove birds from mist nets. This scene is increasingly being played out across Costa Rica at the burgeoning bird monitoring stations created by Costa Rica Bird Observatories (CRBO).
The concept of a bird observatory in Costa Rica began in 1994, as a bird monitoring project spanning seven bird banding sites around the quaint Caribbean village of Tortuguero, long considered a focal area for migrant birds. These sites now encompass a variety of habitats, providing insight into the natural history of a wide variety of migrant and resident birds. Linked by canals, the stations are accessed by field crews in the predawn darkness during most months of the year.
Mornings at these banding sites are enthralling: Bicolored Antbirds announce their arrival at ant-swarms, while Western Slaty-Antshrikes solicit neighboring birds to join their foraging flock. Afternoons are spent counting migrating swallows, dipping toes in the Caribbean Sea, and eating coconut-infused rice at the spacious cafeteria of the field station.
At a bird observatory, data goes much deeper than just the names of the species and quantity of birds detected on a census. It includes critical findings on the health of both the Neotropical migrants and the little-known resident birds, each with their own suite of adaptations to ever-changing environments. Such reports include how well and often they are breeding and if they are getting sufficient food for migration and molting.
Studies show that many bird populations are declining at alarming rates. Migrant birds must contend with a host of unknowns, including changing climate, invasive species, and habitat alterations on their temperate breeding, tropical wintering grounds, and migration areas. Because migrants routinely cross political boundaries, they make our global avian community a truly shared commodity. Establishing conservation and monitoring partnerships is a key strategy in the sometimes fractious battle between resource extraction and bird conservation. Given the acute threats of climate change and habitat loss, biologists from North, Central, and South America must transcend political and cultural barriers to promote sustainable bird populations for future generations.
In 2008, joining the U.S Forest Service and Klamath Bird Observatory as partners, CRBO was invited to open its central office at the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) headquarters in Santo Domingo de Heredia. INBio is one of the leading research NGOs in the Americas— introducing on average a new species to science every three days.
The information generated through sustained monitoring to support the conservation of avian populations is accessible to government agencies, academics, and citizen organizations. For more information about Costa Rica Bird Observatories, visit: costaricabird.org