The Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® Recommendations for Landowners: (Belize and Mesoamerica edition) By Victoria D. Piaskowski, Mario Teul, Reynold N. Cal, Kari M. Williams and David Tzul Dr. Gil Boese, President, Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc. President emeritus, Zoological Society of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. About the Authors Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Gil Boese, Ph.D., was president of the Zoological Fronteras® Contact Information Society of Milwaukee for 16 years. He has been president of the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Belize: Inc., since its inception in 1993. Dr. Boese initiated Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® the Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® Forest Drive (BWB-ASF) project in 1996 and continues to oversee Help for Progress Building the project. He has supervised the management of P.O. Box 97 Runaway Creek Nature Preserve since its purchase Belmopan City, Cayo District in 1998. Dr. Boese has a Ph.D in pathobiology from Belize, Central America Johns Hopkins University and has done extensive Phone: 501-822-0236 field work in zoology. Fax: 501-822-0241 E-mail: [email protected] Victoria Piaskowski has been the international Wisconsin: coordinator of BWB-ASF since it began in 1996. Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® Throughout the project, she has managed the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc. research and field work and conducted staff Zoological Society of Milwaukee training. Piaskowski has a master of science 1421 N. Water St. degree in biological sciences from the Milwaukee, WI 53202 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. USA Phone: 414-276-0339 Mario Teul has been the Belize national coordinator Fax: 414-276-0886 since 2003 and has been with the project since it E-mail: [email protected] started in Belize in 1997. Teul has an associate’s degree in English with a minor in biology from the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc. University College of Belize and a teaching certificate 10005 W. Blue Mound Rd. from the Belize Ministry of Education. Milwaukee, WI 53226 USA Reynold Cal has been the manager of the Runaway Phone: 414-258-2333, extension 214 Creek Nature Preserve since 2004 and has been with Fax: 414-258-4004 the BWB-ASF project since 2001. Cal is a High School E-mail: [email protected] graduate with a teaching certificate from the Belize Birds Without Borders - Aves Sin Fronteras® Ministry of Education. Web site: Kari Williams is the Wisconsin-based BWB-ASF http://www.zoosociety.org/Conservation/BWB-ASF/ project assistant and has been with the project since Runaway Creek Nature Preserve Web site: 2000. She has a bachelor of science degree in zoology http://www.zoosociety.org/runawaycreek from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She supports both the Belize and Wisconsin staff. A Note about Bird Names A single bird is often known by more than one name. David Tzul is the administrative assistant of All birds have a scientific name (Latin name), consist- BWB-ASF Belize and has been with the project ing of a genus and a species, that is usually printed since 2003. Tzul has a post-secondary diploma in in italics. All scientists worldwide use the scientific animal health and veterinary public health from name to refer to each bird species. There are also the Regional Education Program for Animal Health English and Spanish common names for many bird Assistants in Guyana, South America. In addition, species. In Belize, birds also can have a Creole name, Tzul has certificates in protected areas management, a local Spanish name, a K’ekchi or Mopan Mayan name conservation techniques, tour guiding and avi- or an archaic or colloquial name. Tables listing these tourism. He also received training in ornithology and names can be found in Appendix 1 on pages 73-97. neotropical biology at Cornell University in New York. In this manual, each time a bird is mentioned, we list its English common name, scientific name and Cover photography by Richard Brodzeller and Nick Stephens. Creole name. Table of Contents About the authors . .Inside Cover Introduction . .2 Why are birds important? . .4 A summary: What you can do to help birds . .5 Introducción en español . .7 ¿Por qué las aves son importantes? . .8 Lo que puede hacer para ayudar a las aves: un resumen . .9 Plants that provide food for birds . .12 Places in Belize that sell plants used as food by birds and other Belize native/agricultural plants . .27 Preventing birds from damaging crops . .29 Birds and aquaculture . .32 Pine savannas are important to birds . 33 Forests found along Belize’s rivers are important to many birds . .36 Birds found at the Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras® Belize study sites . .43 Belize habitats that are preferred by resident and migratory birds . .60 Neotropical migrants fly more than 1,500 miles to return to Belize each year . .61 Other Belize habitats that are important to birds . .62 Helping Jabirus . .63 Helping birds that nest in holes or cavities . ..