Wednesday 15 October 2008.
ProAves established the new Orange-breasted Falcon Bird Reserve in the foothills of the Llanos thanks to the support of World Land Trust-US and Robert Giles. Located just 15 minutes from the city of Villavicencio, the capital of the department of Meta, the new reserve overlooks the vast Llanos plain.
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Thanks to explorations by ProAves with the support of NMBCA- USFWS, the importance of protecting the humid forested foothills of the Eastern Andes beside the Llanos grasslands was highlighted. This area is crucial wintering and passage habitat for Neotropical migrants, such as Swainson’s Thrushes that follow the north-south border of the Andes that precipitously rise from the flat grasslands of the Llanos. The reserve has recorded 240 bird species, but most important for the Orange-breasted Falcon that is distributed across Colombia, but very little known and considered near-threatened.
The new reserve is also extremely important for rare and endangered mammals, such as the Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and the Ornate Titi monkey (Callicebus ornatus), which is endemic to Colombia.
The foothills of the Andes beside the Llanos are now largely fragmented as pressure from cattle ranches in the lowlands have pushed up into the cooler climes of the Andes. While only patches remain, the new reserve protects part of one of the most important surviving fragments and extremely important for the city of Villavicencio with over 360,000 inhabitants.
With the support of:
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