Every year, approximately 173 species of migratory birds pass through Colombia in search of food and warm territories. The birds play a fundamental role in ecosystems and their conservation, so it is of great importance to preserve these habitats.
The ProAves Reserves are key sites for conservation, which is why different migratory species pass through its corridors each year. For this reason, the Fundación ProAves has been running the migratory bird program for more than 15 years, with the objective of evaluating the status of the species and collecting valuable information regarding changes and trends in populations.
Starting in October, ProAves began monitoring the 2019-2020 migration season. For 7 months, from October 2019 to April 2020, the rangers followed the migration.
These monitoring were carried out in 19 ProAves Reserves during two days (3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon) once a week, for a total sampling effort of 24 hours/month in each of the Reserves.
Thanks to the knowledge of the rangers, their ability to identify the species and manage the tools and applications, in the 19 Reserves a total of 3,795 records were obtained from 6,453 individuals belonging to 82 migratory species.
The species prioritized in the Plan for the conservation of migratory birds in Colombia (ProAves 2009) and observed in the Fundación ProAves Reserves were: Elanoides forficatus, Buteo swainsoni, Empidonax traillii, Contopus cooperi, Vermivora chrysoptera, Setophaga castanea, Setophaga cerulea, Protonotaria citrea, and Cardellina canadensis.
We are extremely grateful to the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) for their contribution to conservation, and especially to the migratory bird program in the ProAves Reserves.