Fundación ProAves – por la conservación en el país de las aves
Date created: October 3, 2006
Area: 35 hectares
Temperature: 71 °F
Ecosystem: Tropical Forest
Weather: Tropical wet and dry
Altitudinal range: Between 1.360 to 1.670 AMSL
Key species: Recurve-billed Bushbird (Clytoctantes alixii), Black-fronted Wood-quail (Odontophorus atrifrons), Gray-throated Warbler (Basileuterus cinereicollis), Moustached Brushfinch (Atlapetes albofrenatus) and Golden-breasted Fruiteater (Pipreola aureopectus).
Among the most important birds in the Reserve are the Recurve-billed Bushbird (Clytoctantes alixii), the Black-fronted Wood-quail (Odontophorus atrifrons), the Gray-throated Warbler (Basileuterus cinereicollis), the Mustached Brushfinch (Atlapetes albofrenatus) and the Golden-breasted Fruiteater (Pipreola aureopectus). There are also characteristic mammals such as the Paca (Agouti paca), the Brown-throated Sloth (Bradypus variegatus), the Woolly Opossum (Caluromys lanatus) and the Kinkajú (Potos flavus), among others.
The Reserve has an area of 35 hectares and is located in the Agua de la Virgen village of the village of the same name, in the municipality of Ocaña, department of Norte de Santander, Colombia. It is found in a small patch of preserved forest in the region, where the species lives, between 1.360 to 1.670 meters above sea level. (See map).
The natural forests of the Agua de la Virgen area are sub-Andean forests described as hygrophytic or subhygrophytic (meaning they require an abundance of moisture) and equivalent to the montane and submontane ombrophilic tropical forest of the UNESCO classification (1973) and the humid, very humid and pluvial forests of the premontane and low montane from Holdridge (1967). They correspond to premontane, primary and secondary cloud forests, where the frequency of fog tends to raise the ambient humidity and decrease evapotranspiration.
The Reserve is made up of conserved secondary forests in an advanced stage of growth with a canopy that reaches 15 m in height, with some trees, in the genuses Erthryna and Inga, reaching in excess of 20 meters. In general, the forests are dominated by a bamboo called locally “reed” or “common reed grass” (Rhipidocladum racemiflorum), which is the preferred feeding site for the Recurve-billed Bushbird. The most characteristic families observed in the understory are Bromeliaceae and Rubiaceae.