Autor: Admin Paul

Martes 8 de marzo de 2011.

Se hará una introducción a la sistematización de datos y el análisis de resultados enfocados a responder preguntas de interés para la conservación de las aves migratorias y endémicas. El curso contará con la presencia instructores de alto nivel de The Wetland Trust (Inglaterra) y la Fundación ProAves (Colombia).

Temáticas a tratar:

Anillamiento científico, captura y toma de datos (muda, edad, sexo), monitoreo, identificación de especies migratorias y ecología.

Fecha:

Del 26 de marzo al 3 de abril de 2011.

Encuentro el 26 de marzo a la 1:30 de la tarde en la Terminal de buses de Santa Marta y regreso 3 de abril 1:30pm en la Terminal de buses de Santa Marta.

Lugar:

Hotel Minca y Reserva Natural de las Aves El Dorado, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – Magdalena, Colombia.

Requisitos para los participantes:

Estudiantes o profesionales con experiencia en investigación de aves migratorias y/o endémicas, o con intención de trabajar con este grupo de aves en un futuro cercano. Preferiblemente con conocimientos del idioma inglés. Cupo limitado para 20 personas.

Inscripciones:

Enviar hoja de vida actualizada y carta de intención a: Margarita Arteaga marteaga@proaves.org especificando las razones para tomar el curso y como serán aplicados los conocimientos a futuro. Especificar en el asunto: curso de anillamiento.

Fechas y precios:

Hasta el viernes 18 de marzo de 2011

$650.000 pesos ($323 USD)

A partir del 04 de marzo de 2011

$850.000 pesos ($425 USD)

*El valor incluye: inscripción y alojamiento: tres (3) días, dos (2) noches en el Hotel Minca, y seis (6) días, seis (6) noches en la RNA El Dorado (Santa Marta – Magdalena), en habitación de 4-6 personas. Alimentación completa durante el curso. Transporte terrestre: Santa Marta – Hotel Minca – RNA El Dorado – Santa Marta. No Incluye transporte hasta Santa Marta.

Margarita Arteaga: marteaga@proaves.org. Fundación ProAves.

Con el apoyo de:

Wednesday 25 March 2009.

Two weeks ago the ProAves conservation team in the Pangán Bird Reserve on the Pacific slope of Nariño found the Rio Ñambí, that flows through the reserve, to be contaminated by a major crude oil spill.

“The spectacular Ñambí river is becoming a sewer of black water, with thousands of death fish and cover riverside vegetation”, Sara Inés Lara, Executive Director of Fundación ProAves, complained. “It a catastrophe for this forest and for this planet”. The oil spill is not due to accident but by the illegal extraction of oil from a major oil pipeline owned and operated by EcoPetrol.” The oil pipeline starts in Putumayo in the Amazon and flows past the reserve and town of Junín and on to the coastal port of Tumaco. Unfortunately, thieves have drilled into the massive pipeline to extract oil.

Two images of the same spot on Ñambí River before (left) and after the oil spill (note that oil contaminated a significant are of riverside vegetation).

Thieves process the oil to produce homemade gasoline which is used in the processing of coca leaves into cocaine. The side products from the artisanal distillation of crude oil, plus the overflow of crude oil all flow into streams then the Rio Ñambí. It is estimated that perhaps more than one hundred thousand gallons of oil have flowed into rivers, causing irreparable damage and death to the fauna and flora of the region.

Orchids and other plants dying in the Ñambí river contaminated by oil.

“The illegal and extremely dangerous extraction of oil have just started” said the President of Fundación ProAves, Alonso Quevedo. “The Chocó rainforests of Colombia are recognized as some of the richest in biodiversity and endemic species in the world with enormous value not only for nature but also for Awá indigenous communities who depend on this area.”

Oil along the Ñambí river (left) and the pipeline passing by the reserve (right).

Unfortunately, there are serious threats to the environment in this region such as illegal logging, illegal crops, cultivation of African palm, and now the looting of oil. UNIPA and CAMAWARI indigenous reserves, besides the El Pangán Bird Reserve are experiencing a crisis that affects not only the ecological balance of the region but also the communities themselves.

The Pangán Bird Reserve support many threatened species including the Pangan Poison Dart Frog (top left, clockwise), Spectacled Bear, Plumbeous Forest-falcon and rare Slipper Orchids.

“For sure, this not only affects the wildlife but also families who derive their livelihood from these rivers,” said Sara Inés Lara. “This silent death of a once pristine river, may take a decade or more to recover.”

Dramatic scenes from the Gualmanbí creek affected by oil.

Ecopetrol and all other authorities have been informed of the critical situation. ProAves is urgently seeking support to train and hire local people that were once loggers and hunters as “forest guardians” to help protect the areas amazing natural heritage, especially monitoring the pipeline. If you are interested to help support this program, please contact us immediately at fundacion@proaves.org

Wednesday 25 March 2009.

A new subspecies of antpitta – a thrush-sized ground-living bird – from near the Colombian city of Medellin has been discovered among the one million bird specimens at the Natural History Museum in London, after lying undiscovered in the collection for 120 years. Now it is probably extinct. The new bird, called Giles’s Antpitta (Grallaria milleri gilesi), was collected in September 1878 by the British ornithologist Thomas Knight Salmon, when he made his last collection of bird skins from the forested hills surrounding the city of Medellin before his abrupt death.

Giles’s Antpitta (Grallaria milleri gilesi).

“There were no bird identification guides in the late nineteenth century so Thomas Salmon sent the specimens he’d collected to be identified by scientists in Britain, where many were deposited at the world’s largest bird collection here at London’s Natural History Museum,” explained the Museum’s head of bird group Dr Robert Prŷs-Jones. “While there were many new and exciting discoveries, one unusual specimen of an antpitta was amazingly overlooked.”

Giles’s Antpitta presentation with Robert Giles (right), Robert Pry-jones (left), and Thomas Donegan.

The new antpitta lay unrecognised in the Museum’s collection until 2001, when bird artist Norman Arlott uncovered the specimen. He drew it to the attention of both Robert Prŷs-Jones and Natural History Museum scientific associate Dr Paul Salaman.

“We immediately recognized the specimen was previously undescribed” exclaimed Dr Paul Salaman, “yet it seems inconceivable that this distinctive specimen could have had been overlooked for 130 years.”

Thomas Knight Salmon collected the bird in the Andean mountains at Santa Elena, a neighbouring town to Colombia’s third largest city, Medellin. Formerly forested, with their cool climate and rich soils these are prime locations for coffee cultivation, agriculture and cattle grazing. Very little of the original lush Andean forests remain and the region has very few protected areas. Several recent searches by Fundación ProAves fieldworkers in the region have failed to locate any living individuals.

“Sadly, the new subspecies appears to have been restricted to Andean forests” said Dr Prŷs-Jones “a habitat that has been almost completely destroyed around Medellin and replaced by non-native pine trees and exotic eucalyptus trees.”

“If we had known about this extraordinary specimen decades before, it is possible the bird could have been located and saved, but sadly it lay overlooked for generations and as a bitter consequence we have probably lost it forever,” concluded Dr Salaman.

Colombia’s national bird conservation organization, Fundación ProAves, has received extensive support from British conservation philanthropist and keen birder, Robert Giles, who has supported the protection of many threatened bird species in Colombia. The new bird has been named in his honor.

The description of the new bird is published in the March 2009 issue of Bulletin of the British Ornithologist’s Club, by three Fundación ProAves Council members – Robert Prŷs-Jones, Thomas Donegan, and Paul Salaman.

Docs

Salaman etal Grallaria milleri gilesi Bull BOC PDF – 664 kb

Wednesday 25 March 2009.

A new subspecies of antpitta – a thrush-sized ground-living bird – from near the Colombian city of Medellin has been discovered among the one million bird specimens at the Natural History Museum in London, after lying undiscovered in the collection for 120 years. Now it is probably extinct. The new bird, called Giles’s Antpitta (Grallaria milleri gilesi), was collected in September 1878 by the British ornithologist Thomas Knight Salmon, when he made his last collection of bird skins from the forested hills surrounding the city of Medellin before his abrupt death.

Giles’s Antpitta (Grallaria milleri gilesi).

“There were no bird identification guides in the late nineteenth century so Thomas Salmon sent the specimens he’d collected to be identified by scientists in Britain, where many were deposited at the world’s largest bird collection here at London’s Natural History Museum,” explained the Museum’s head of bird group Dr Robert Prŷs-Jones. “While there were many new and exciting discoveries, one unusual specimen of an antpitta was amazingly overlooked.”

Giles’s Antpitta presentation with Robert Giles (right), Robert Pry-jones (left), and Thomas Donegan.

The new antpitta lay unrecognised in the Museum’s collection until 2001, when bird artist Norman Arlott uncovered the specimen. He drew it to the attention of both Robert Prŷs-Jones and Natural History Museum scientific associate Dr Paul Salaman.

“We immediately recognized the specimen was previously undescribed” exclaimed Dr Paul Salaman, “yet it seems inconceivable that this distinctive specimen could have had been overlooked for 130 years.”

Thomas Knight Salmon collected the bird in the Andean mountains at Santa Elena, a neighbouring town to Colombia’s third largest city, Medellin. Formerly forested, with their cool climate and rich soils these are prime locations for coffee cultivation, agriculture and cattle grazing. Very little of the original lush Andean forests remain and the region has very few protected areas. Several recent searches by Fundación ProAves fieldworkers in the region have failed to locate any living individuals.

“Sadly, the new subspecies appears to have been restricted to Andean forests” said Dr Prŷs-Jones “a habitat that has been almost completely destroyed around Medellin and replaced by non-native pine trees and exotic eucalyptus trees.”

“If we had known about this extraordinary specimen decades before, it is possible the bird could have been located and saved, but sadly it lay overlooked for generations and as a bitter consequence we have probably lost it forever,” concluded Dr Salaman.

Colombia’s national bird conservation organization, Fundación ProAves, has received extensive support from British conservation philanthropist and keen birder, Robert Giles, who has supported the protection of many threatened bird species in Colombia. The new bird has been named in his honor.

The description of the new bird is published in the March 2009 issue of Bulletin of the British Ornithologist’s Club, by three Fundación ProAves Council members – Robert Prŷs-Jones, Thomas Donegan, and Paul Salaman.

Docs

Salaman etal Grallaria milleri gilesi Bull BOC
PDF – 664 kb

Wednesday 27 June 2007.

Wildlife researchers have photographed two rare bird species, the Recurve-billed Bushbird and the Perija Parakeet and published it for the first time. The Recurve-billed Bushbird was photographed in Norte de Santander, Colombia by Adriana Tovar and Luis Eduardo Uruena of Fundación ProAves, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) Colombian conservation partner. The species remained undetected between 1965 and 2004 due to its small range and the remoteness of its habitats, until it was rediscovered recently in Venezuela and in a region of northeastern Colombia where this photo was taken.

Perija Parakeet and Recurve-billed Bushbird.

During an expedition into this little explored region, Thomas Donegan and Blanca Huertas of ProAves discovered a relict forest around a holy sanctuary near the city of Ocaña. In 1709, the image of the Virgin Mary was seen in a tree root that had been cut down. The event was declared a miracle by the Vatican. A small area of forest known as the Torcoroma Holy Sanctuary has been protected by Church authorities ever since and a beautiful chapel which still houses the divine image was constructed on the site.

The surviving humid forest patch is dominated by bamboo and supports a treasure chest of threatened and little-known species. The site was declared an Important Bird Area in 2005, leading to visits by ornithologists and birdwatchers. Oscar Laverde from Colombia’s National University discovered a population of the endangered Recurve-billed Bushbird there that year. In late 2006, ProAves established the 250-acre Hormiguero de Torcoroma Bird Reserve adjacent to the Torcoroma Holy Sanctuary to protect the Recurve-billed Bushbird and other endemics.

“Whenever a new bird species is found or a species that was thought to be lost is rediscovered, it gives us all hope and encouragement,” said Paul Salaman, ABC’s International Program Director. “But as more and more remote areas are being settled, the bushbird reminds us how important it is to conserve as much natural habitat as we can. Who knows what wonderful biodiversity is being destroyed before it has had a chance to be discovered?”

The Recurve-billed Bushbird inhabits dense bamboo stands in the dry-cloud forest and has been seen splitting bamboo stems with its axe-like beak to extract grubs. The bushbird and several other little-known endemics occur in relict dry-cloud forest patches on the crests of Andean mountains in an otherwise arid region. Deforestation and wildfires for agriculture and grazing have devastated these forests, resulting in a denuded landscape which suffers from extensive soil erosion.

“ProAves is conducting environmental education campaigns for children and young people in the local community of Ocaña to help protect the habitat,” said Salaman. “Due to the rapid fragmentation of the habitat and lack of bordering forests in this region of Colombia, it is vitally important that we learn more about the bushbird to plan effectively for its conservation.”

The Perija Parakeet, an exceptionally rare species which was also photographed by Adriana Tovar and Luis Eduardo Urueña, thanks to Loro Parque Fundacion, has a very distinctive blue nape and white breast, and is threatened by habitat disturbance and loss, and potentially by illegal bird traders.

Thursday 18 August 2005.

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Colombian conservation group, Fundación ProAves, announce the creation of South America’s first protected area for a songbird that breeds exclusively in North America. The reserve will protect wintering habitat for the Cerulean Warbler, a striking bright blue and white migratory bird that has experienced significant population decreases in recent years, mainly due to loss of habitat on both its nesting grounds in North America and wintering grounds in South America.

The Cerulean Warbler nests in the eastern United States and Canada from the lower Great Lakes region, southern Quebec and New England, south to northern Louisiana and northwestern Georgia. Within this area, the species breeds primarily in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, especially in the upper Ohio River Valley in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The species also ranges east to New York, Maryland, and Virginia.

“This Cerulean Warbler reserve is a ground-breaking step in the conservation of migratory song birds” said Mike Parr, Vice President for Communications at American Bird Conservancy. “This is the first South American preserve designed to protect a bird species that solely nests in the United States and Canada.”

The new reserve currently includes 500 acres of subtropical forest in the Rio Chucurí basin of Santander, Colombia. The area, one of the last natural remnant forest fragments in the region, shelters high populations of wintering Cerulean Warblers. The reserve also contains three Critically Endangered bird species: the Gorgeted Wood-Quail, Colombian Mountain Grackle, and Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird, along with many other threatened and endemic birds.

“The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, currently up for reauthorization in Congress, provided critical funding that helped to show that this region is important to the long-term survival of the Cerulean Warbler,” said Parr, “this project and others like it provide a strong justification for the renewal of the Act.”

The reserve in Santander is the focal point for a continuing regional conservation campaign for the warbler. Another key area for wintering Ceruleans, southwestern Antioquia, Colombia, has also been targeted by ABC for further conservation efforts.

The purchase was made possible by a major donation from British conservationist Robert Giles, and support from other individual donors.

PHOTOGRAPHS

To obtain high resolution photos of Cerulean Warbler contact: Robert Royse, www.roysephotos.com, rroyse@sprynet.com (Cerulean Warbler Images are located at: http://www.roysephotos.com/CeruleanWarbler.html – permission must be obtained prior to use).

To download a map showing the Cerulean Warbler’s winter, migration, and breeding ranges, together with the location of the new reserve go to: http://www.abcbirds.org/media/cerulean_map.htm.

American Bird Conservancy is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. It is the only U.S.-based group dedicated solely to overcoming the greatest threats facing birds throughout the Western Hemisphere. ABC believes adequate resources exist to overcome these threats, and that unifying people, organizations, and agencies around common approaches to priority issues is the key to success.

Thursday 7 June 2007.

On May 5th a group of birders conformed by Gwen Brewer, Bill Hubick, Tom Feild, and George Jett, took part in a fund raising event for the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve as part of the Southern Maryland Audubon Society annual fund raising birdathon. They started at 3 AM and birded until well after 10 PM. They finished with 130 species. This team raised just over $2,500 and contributions are still coming in.

Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, in Santander, Colombia.

On May 12th Partners in Flight (PIF) and International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) joined together to host a World Series of Birding team, the Redstarts with members from Canada, the United States, and Latin America. They saw a total of 212 species and tied for 6th place in the World Series of Birding event. A third of their funds raised (total not yet available) will contribute to the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, own by ProAves. For more information about the PIF/IMBD team efforts (including a list of birds seen) click here. To learn more about the World Series of Birding click here.

Many THANKS to the team members and their supporters for these efforts!

The Bird Conservation Alliance and American Bird Conservancy efforts for raising finds for this appeal will continue until the end of the year.

Thursday 7 June 2007.

On May 5th a group of birders conformed by Gwen Brewer, Bill Hubick, Tom Feild, and George Jett, took part in a fund raising event for the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve as part of the Southern Maryland Audubon Society annual fund raising birdathon. They started at 3 AM and birded until well after 10 PM. They finished with 130 species. This team raised just over $2,500 and contributions are still coming in.

Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, in Santander, Colombia.

On May 12th Partners in Flight (PIF) and International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) joined together to host a World Series of Birding team, the Redstarts with members from Canada, the United States, and Latin America. They saw a total of 212 species and tied for 6th place in the World Series of Birding event. A third of their funds raised (total not yet available) will contribute to the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, own by ProAves. For more information about the PIF/IMBD team efforts (including a list of birds seen) click here. To learn more about the World Series of Birding click here.

Many THANKS to the team members and their supporters for these efforts!

The Bird Conservation Alliance and American Bird Conservancy efforts for raising finds for this appeal will continue until the end of the year.

Thursday 7 June 2007.

On May 5th a group of birders conformed by Gwen Brewer, Bill Hubick, Tom Feild, and George Jett, took part in a fund raising event for the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve as part of the Southern Maryland Audubon Society annual fund raising birdathon. They started at 3 AM and birded until well after 10 PM. They finished with 130 species. This team raised just over $2,500 and contributions are still coming in.

Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, in Santander, Colombia.

On May 12th Partners in Flight (PIF) and International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) joined together to host a World Series of Birding team, the Redstarts with members from Canada, the United States, and Latin America. They saw a total of 212 species and tied for 6th place in the World Series of Birding event. A third of their funds raised (total not yet available) will contribute to the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve, own by ProAves. For more information about the PIF/IMBD team efforts (including a list of birds seen) click here. To learn more about the World Series of Birding click here.

Many THANKS to the team members and their supporters for these efforts!

The Bird Conservation Alliance and American Bird Conservancy efforts for raising finds for this appeal will continue until the end of the year.

Wednesday 15 October 2008.

Another new bird subspecies for science has been described from beside ProAves’ Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve The Yariguíes Slate-crowned Antpitta was discovered during explorations of Serranía de los Yariguíes, in Colombia, by ProAves. It is a subspecies of the Slate-crowned Antpitta, and has been given the scientific name Grallaricula nana hallsi. The new subspecies was discovered and described during biological explorations of the Yariguíes mountains by ProAves. The description was formally published last week in the scientific journal Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club.

The Slate-crowned Antpitta is a small bird with orange underparts and long legs found in forested mountains of the northern Andes. It differs from other slate-crowned antpittas in the shade of orange and olive in its plumage and by its short, low-pitched song. The name ’hallsi’ honours the British birder Alan G. Halls, who died in 2005 at the same time as the expedition on which the discovery was made.

This new subspecies of Slate-crowned Antpitta follows various other discoveries of birds and butterflies, being the fourth new taxon to be described from recent explorations of the Yariguíes mountains of Colombia by ProAves’ team. The 100 km Yariguies mountain range went unstudied for decades due to difficulty of access and political instability until recent surveys. The expedition team also found the world’s most viable populations of a host of critically endangered birds in the region. As a result, the Yariguíes mountains were declared a 78,837 ha National Park in 2005 and ProAves established a 545 ha nature reserve adjacent to the National Park.

The description was published as part of a substantial revision of the taxonomy of Slate-crowned Antpitta group. Another new subspecies, Grallaricula nana nanitaea, which had gone overlooked from Venezuela, was also described. It was further revealed that there are three distinct species within the Slate-crowned Antpitta group.

“This and other discoveries from our expeditions show the Yariguíes mountains to be a previously unknown centre of endemism” commented Thomas Donegan of ProAves, who discovered and described the new antpitta. “It is important to conserve the region in order to protect unique populations such as this.”

Grallaricula nana hallsi was discovered on the Fundación ProAves “EBA Project” expedition to Serranía de los Yariguíes. This and follow-up research on YARE project were supported by Royal Geographical Society, BP Conservation Programme (BirdLife International, Conservation International, Flora Fauna International, Wildlife Conservation Society), Duke of Edinburgh, Fondo para Acción Ambiental, Conservation International Colombia (Becas Iniciativa de Especies Amenazadas-Jorge Ignacio “El Mono” Hernández-Camacho), the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund (Linnean Society), Tropical Andean Butterfly Diversity Project, Game Conservancy Trust, World Pheasant Association, Corporación Autónoma Regional de Santander, Mayoralties of San Vicente de Chucurí, Galan and El Carmen, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Universidad de Caldas, Universidad de Tolima and Gobernación de Santander. Other expedition participants included: Colombian and British biologists and students Blanca Huertas, Jorge Avendaño, Elkin Briceño, John Jairo Arias, Cristóbal Ríos, Laura Rosado, Diana Villanueva, Diana Montealegre, Clare Turner, Martin Donegan and local guide José Pinto.

Tuesday 11 August 2009.

The 700 mile-long Magdalena river basin once held a lush carpet of lowland rainforest encircled by the mighty Central and Eastern Cordillera mountain ranges. This isolated rainforest have been a biological melting pot, influenced by the flora and fauna from neighboring regions like the Amazon that has given rise to a rich assemblage of biodiversity with an exceptional diversity of endemic flora and fauna, like the Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti and Magdalena Spider Monkey Ateles hybridus. Tragically, intensive colonization across the region continues unabated and has resulted in the elimination of nearly ten million acres for ranching, coca plantations and other activities, while many of the region’s endemic species are now critically endangered.

Rainforest acquired in Serranía de las Quinchas to expand the El Paujil Nature Reserve.

The Serranía de las Quinchas, on the border between the Boyacá and Santander departments and located just 85 miles north of the capital Bogotá, represents one of the last opportunities to safeguard a critical area of Magdalena valley rainforest. In 2003, ProAves acquired a number of properties to consolidate the 3,678 acre El Paujil Nature reserve – the first protected area of Magdalena lowland rainforest. The site was declared an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site in 2005 as it held the population stronghold for the Blue-billed Curassow. ProAves also started a threatened species research program and engaged local communities in sustainable development and outreach activities around the reserve. However, forests surrounding the reserve were being clearing to sell timber and establish illicit coca plantations and pasturelands.

Since 2008, ProAves has been working with American Bird Conservancy and World Land Trust to urgently acquire and protect additional properties from loggers that surround the reserve to ensure viable populations of the most endangered species. In recent months, we are pleased to have acquired six strategic private properties totaling 3,356 acres, from loggers and coca farmers, to almost double the size of the Paujil Nature Reserve. The expanded reserve includes over 400 acres of pasturelands requiring reforestation as well as some of the most intact primary forest surviving in the Magdalena valley of Colombia. With three forest guards and reserve Director supported by BirdLife International, the Paujil Reserve is now 6,935 acres and protects in perpetuity an estimated at over 100 pairs of the Critically Endangered Blue-billed Curassow as well as stronghold populations of the Magdalena Spider Monkey, Jaguar, Spectacled Bear and extremely rare Magdalena race of the Lowland Tapir Tapirus terrestris columbianus.

However, it remains critical to continue acquiring private properties around the Paujil reserve as deforestation rates are as high as 6.8% per annum and represents some the planets most imperiled rainforest species and habitat. Land prices are approximately $50 per acre. Please support us to save endangered rainforest today and receive a certificate for every two acres you save.