COTINGA 1 Neotropical News Neotropical News

Brazilian Merganser in Argentina: If the survey’s results reflect the true going, going … status of Mergus octosetaceus in Argentina then there is grave cause for concern — local An expedition (Pato Serrucho ’93) aimed extinction, as in neighbouring Paraguay, at discovering the current status of the seems inevitable. Brazilian Merganser Mergus octosetaceus in Misiones Province, northern Argentina, During the expedition a number of sub­ has just returned to the U.K. Mergus tropical forest sites were surveyed for birds octosetaceus is one of the world’s rarest — other threatened species recorded during species of wildfowl, with a population now this period included: Black-fronted Piping- estimated to be less than 250 individuals guan Pipile jacutinga, Vinaceous Amazon occurring in just three populations, one in Amazona vinacea, Helmeted Woodpecker northern Argentina, the other two in south- Dryocopus galeatus, White-bearded central Brazil. Antshrike Biata s nigropectus, and São Paulo Tyrannulet Phylloscartes paulistus. Three conservation biologists from the U.K. and three South American counter­ PHIL BENSTEAD parts surveyed c.450 km of white-water riv­ Beaver House, Norwich Road, Reepham, ers and streams using an inflatable boat. Norwich, NR10 4JN, U.K. Despite exhaustive searching only one bird was located in an area peripheral to the species’s historical stronghold. Former core Black-breasted Puffleg found: extant areas (and incidently those with the most but seriously threatened. protection) for this species appear to have been adversely affected by the the Urugua- The Black-breasted Puffleg Eriocnemis í dam, which in 1989 flooded c.80 km of the nigrivestis has been recorded from just two Río Urugua-í. Apart from causing direct adjacent volcanoes, Volcán Pichincha and flooding of habitat, suitable areas in the Volcán Atacazo, in north-west Ecuador, upper reaches of the rivers flowing into the where it seems to be confined to temperate dam now appear to hold higher densities of zone ridge-top vegetation: the species is other fish-eating birds, especially Neotropic poorly known and highly threatened2. Since Cormorants Phalacrocorax olivaceus. This 1950, the only confirmed records were of cormorant now breeds in large numbers in three birds on Cerro Pugsi (on the north the dam basin and some appear to travel slope of Pichincha) in 19801. upstream to feed in the rivers Urugua-í and Uruzú, and may actively compete with From 27 February to 1 March 1993 a Mergus octosetaceus. Rivers not draining search for Eriocnemis nigrivestis was into the dam, including the Piray-miní where crowned with success: an adult male and the sole bird was recorded, exhibited a much two females were observed, and documenta­ lower density of cormorants. Additional tion was obtained by netting and photo­ threats include deforestation and the subse­ graphing a female, from which a blood sam­ quent increase in turbidity in rivers used by ple for DNA sequencing was obtained. This Mergus octosetaceus, as well as human dis­ bird, which weighed 3.95 g, appeared fairly turbance and hunting. fresh-plumaged and was not moulting. All

8 COTINGA 1 Neotropical News three pufflegs were found at 3,300 m on nigrivestis on Pichincha, and search for the Loma Gramalote near Hacienda Yanacocha species on Atacazo (R. Phillips pers. comm.) (00°06'S 78°35–36'W), an old collecting site — hopefully these studies will provide some for the species. They were found in habitat answers to the best way of protecting the similar to that on Cerro Pugsi in 1980 as bird and its habitat. described by Bleiweiss and Olalla1, i.e. dense ericaceous ridge-crest scrub adjacent to R eferences mixed humid forest. During three feeding 1. Bleiweiss, R. & Olalla, P., M. (1983) Notes in the ecology of the Black-breasted Puffleg on Volcán Pichincha, Ecuador. Wilson Bull. 95: 656–661. 2. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. P., Krabbe, N., Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened birds of the Americas: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book. Cambridge, U.K.: International Coun­ cil for Bird Preservation.

NIELS KRABBE, M. J. BRAUN, M. JÁCOME, M. B. ROBBINS, S. SCHJØRRING AND F. SORNOZA M. Casilla 17-21-791, Quito, Ecuador

Ivory-billed Woodpecker feared extinct in Cuba A three month survey carried out in eastern Cuba, in the area where an Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis was Black-breasted Puffleg Eriocnemis observed in 1987, failed to find any evidence nigrivestis Volcán Pichincha, Novem ber of the species. The team, consisting of 1993 (M.J. Braun) ornithologists from the Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales, Cuba and the bouts the species was seen probing apical Netherlands, also searched the only other (red) shoots of Disterigma sp. (Ericaceae) piece of suitable habitat remaining on the without flowers, but whether it was fooled island, but again found no evidence of the by the flower-like red shoots or was extract­ bird. The last confirmed sighting of ing insects is not known. Other food plants Campephilus principalis in the United noted were Palicourea cf. huigrensis States was made in the early 1970s and it (Rubiaceae), Psychotria sp. (Rubiaceae), now seems certain that the species is ex­ Macleania rupestris (Ericaceae), and Vallea tinct. stipularis (Elaeocarpaceae), the latter be­ Source: WorldBirdwatch [1993] 15(2). ing a small pink-flowered tree not amongst the 13 food plants used during feeding bouts Stability in Dominica observed in September 1980, when the tree Spring 1993 surveys in Dominica showed no may not have been flowering1. significant change in the populations of the two threatened Amazon parrots endemic to This hummingbird is seriously threat­ the island: the Imperial Amazon Amazona ened by habitat clearance for pasture and imperialis is stable at c.80–100 birds, with firewood, and immediate steps for its pro­ c.500 Red-necked Amazons A. arausiaca tection should be taken. In response to this still present. Population monitoring of other urgent cry for action, the Ecuadorean NGO birds on the island has shown that certain CECIA has developed a proposal to study E. rainforest species such as Forest Thrush

9 COTINGA 1 Neotropical News Cichlherminia lherminieri, Ruddy Quail- population has increased from 500 in the Dove Geotrygon montana and Red-necked mid-1970s to around 15 000. Several ducks Pigeon Columba squamosa, badly hit dur­ may lay in a single nest that may contain ing the hurricanes of 1979 and 1980, are more than 80 eggs. Eggs are removed by the continuing to show a healthy recovery. villagers to supplement their diet. Villagers Source: P. G. H. Evans in litt. 1993 also recently prevented local farmers from draining the wetlands for pasture. Re-introduction of Plain Pigeons in Source: American Birds [1993] 47(2). Puerto Rico The Plain Pigeon Columba inornata is en­ First Nature Reserve in French Guiana demic to the Greater Antilles where it is d eclared threatened from hunting and habitat loss. At the end of 1992, the L’île du Grand A captive breeding programme for the Puerto Connétable, an island some 18 km off the Rican subspecies C. i. wetmorei (which num­ Guiana coast was declared a nature reserve; bers fewer than 300 in the wild) has now the first gazetted in French Guiana. The raised more than 100 birds. The first eight island is a breeding site for several species of were released in April 1993 in the east- seabird, including 5% of the Caribbean popu­ central part of the country, and two of the lation of the Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata five still surviving appear to have found magnificens. wild mates. Source: BirdLife International Pan Source: Re-introduction News [1993] 6. American Bull. [1993] 8(2).

Fall raptor migration in Veracruz, Fears for survival of Grey-headed War­ M exico bler in Venezuela Possibly the world’s largest migration of A recent visit to Cerro Negro, north-eastern diurnal raptors has recently been reported Venezuela, by Jon Curson and David Bea­ from Veracruz, Mexico. Each fall, tens of dle provided evidence that the Grey-headed thousands of migrant raptors pass through Warbler Basileuterus griseiceps is now criti­ the state, and in the fall of 1992, 2.5 million cally endangered. Only two birds were birds were seen from vantage points be­ found in a 1–2 km2 patch of forest, which tween Cardel inland to Jalapa. Over 1 may be the last suitable patch of forest on million Turkey Vultures Cathartes aura, Cerro Negro despite being within El 900 000 Broad-winged Hawks Buteo Guácharo National Park. The only other platypterus and 450 000 Swainson’s Hawks known site for the species is Cerro B. swainsoni were counted, including Turumiquire, from where there is no infor­ 435 000 raptors on 30 September. Raptor mation on its status. counts in this area have been carried out by Source: WorldBirdwatch [1993] 15(2). teams from Hawkwatch International and the Mexican conservation organization Tourist developments threaten Ramsar Ecosfera. site in Venezuela Source: Raptor Watch [1992] 7(1): 5. The Venezuelan Ministry of Tourism is seek­ ing a loan from the Interamerican Develop­ Sustainable use of Whistling-Duck eggs ment Bank to build several large hotels in El Salvador inside the buffer zone of the country’s only Villagers from Jocotal in southern El Salva­ Ramsar site, the Cuare Wildlife Refuge. dor have provided more than 480 nest boxes This is a very important feeding site for the for Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks only population of Greater Flamingo Dendrocygna autumnalis in response to a Phoenicopterus ruber in the southern Car­ decline in the population following clear­ ibbean and one of the few known sites for ance of trees used for nesting and over­ Plain-flanked Rail Rallus wetmorei. harvesting of eggs. As a consequence the Source: World Birdwatch [1993] 15(2).

10 COTINGA 1 Neotropical News Andean Condors released in Venezuela and hunters. There are also proposals to Five Andean Condors Vultur gryphus bred open up all of Ecuador’s national Parks to at San Diego and Los Angeles Zoos were small-scale mining. released during February 1993 in the Sierra Source: World Birdwatch [1993] 15(2). de la Culata National Park, and appear to have adapted successfully to their Andean Oil threat to Cuyabeno home. Another five birds are to be shipped The 650 000 ha Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve from the U.S.A. towards the end of 1993. in Amazonian Ecuador (Napo state) is un­ Source: WorldBirdwatch [1993] 15(1). der serious and increasing threat from oil exploitation. The reserve is largely intact in Canal development threatens the the middle and eastern zones close to the O rinoco Colombian and Peruvian borders, but the Plans to canalize the Río Apure and three of western zone has already been despoiled by its tributaries in Venezuela are predicted to the oil industry. A new initiative, if agreed have a devastating effect on wildlife. Two by the government in Ecuador, will allow National Parks and two Wildlife Refuges the state-owned company Petroecuador to will be destroyed when an estimated extract oil from the remaining unspoilt part 30 000 km2 of Llanos (seasonally flooded of the reserve with the obvious potential for plains) are converted to intensive agricul­ widespread environmental degradation. ture and the area is opened up to water Source: BBC Wildlife [1992] 11(10). transport. The World Bank refuses to fund the project but the Japanese International Blue-throated Macaws found in the Cooperation Agency is carrying out studies w ild with a view to securing loans from Japanese Charlie Munn of the Wildlife Conservation Banks. Important populations of Scarlet Society (WCS) located a small number of Ibis Eudocimus ruber will be affected if the Blue-throated Macaws Ara glaucogularis project goes ahead. in Bolivia in 1992. Four nests and other Source: BBC Wildlife [1993] 11(4). mated pairs are now being studied by a team from WCS. Although well known in captiv­ Bogotá endemics under new threats ity, this species has never been found by The wetlands near Bogotá, Colombia, home ornithologists in the wild before. to the Bogotá Rail Rallus semiplumbeus Source: World Birdwatch [1992] 14(4). and Apolinar’s Wren Cistothorus apolinari, are threatened by proposals to construct a Rediscovery of the Bolivian Recurvebill hippodrome at La Florida park and a major Ted Parker reported that, during 1989 a new road along the banks of the Río Bogotá. survey team rediscovered Bolivian Fundación Natura Columbia is campaign­ Recurvebill Simoxenops striatus in tall ing to stop these developments. montane forest within the Amboró National Source: World Birdwatch [1993] 15(1). Park, Bolivia. This species was previously known from four specimens collected in the Podocarpus National Park reprieved 1930s in Santa Ana, Dpto. La Paz and from from mining Palmar, Dpto. Cochabamba. Parker’s team Following international pressure from envi­ observed single recurvebills at elevations of ronmentalists, the threat of large-scale open- 700–800 m in impenetrable shrubby tan­ pit mining in Ecuador’s Podocarpus Na­ gles, often in the vicinity of fallen trees, and tional Park has been lifted. However, seri­ a pair that was associating with a mixed ous threats still persist since the explora­ bird flock and feeding at 12–20 m above the tory activities of the mining company, ground in vine tangles. Also of interest were Ecuanor, have led to the development of observations of the little-known Ashy many trails within the park. These trails Antwren Myrmotherula grisea that were have provided access to an estimated 200– made in the National Park. 500 gold miners as well as illegal loggers Source: Wilson Bull. [1992] 104: 173–177.

11 COTINGA 1 Neotropical News Magellenic Penguin colony’s fate in the Atlantic forest purchase b alan ce The Una Federal Biological Reserve in south­ Construction of a proposed pipeline through ern Bahia state, Brazil has been enlarged by a colony of 200 000 Magellenic Penguins the purchase of 1,058 ha of primary Atlantic Spheniscus magellanicus at Cabo Virgenes forest from a neighbouring farm. The re­ in Argentina has been temporarily halted serve needs at least another 1,000 ha to following legal action brought about by a provide a viable protected area for the threat­ Buenos Aires resident and various conser­ ened primates it harbours, but is already of vationists. If the pipeline is to be built, the prime importance for the threatened Red­ Argentine government must prove that there billed Curassow Crax blumenbachii and is no danger to the penguins. White-winged Cotinga Xipholena Source: American Birds [1993] 47(2). atropurpurea. Source: Oryx [1993] 27(4), with bird data from BirdLife International.

12 COTINGA 2 Neotropical News Neotropical News

Gold miners in Podocarpus National Park, * Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, Gral. de Ecuador, going, going … gone? Ejercito José Gallardo Roman, La Recoleta, Podocarpus National Park in southern Ecua­ Quito, Ecuador dor has recently been the focus of research * Ministerio de Agricultura y Granderia, Ing. which has highlighted its potential to hold Mariano Gonzales, Av. Amazonas y Eloy over 600 bird species, many of which are rare Alfaro, Quito, Ecuador and nine globally threatened1,2,3. However, * INEFAN, Ing. Dipl. Jorge Barba, Av. since the mid-1980s, the park has been threat­ Amazonas y Eloy Alfaro, Quito, Ecuador ened from both large-scale gold mining by in­ * Fundación Arcoiris, Casilla 11-01-860, ternational companies and small-scale gold Loja, Ecuador. mining by local cooperatives. The interna­ tional companies Río Tinto Zinc and Ecuanor Fundación Arcoiris are to be congratulated, both pulled out at the exploration phase, as their actions have been instrumental in Ecuanor being last out in early 1993. How­ achieving these successes. Readers can sup­ ever, their activities and the provision of trails port such actions by becoming members of the and the construction of a large camp at San fundación. Luis, at the very heart of the park, attracted hundreds of small-scale miners. Their use of References mercury in the gold recovery process caused 1. Bloch, H., Poulsen, M. K., Rahbek, C. & alarm to biologists and was one subject of an Rasmussen, J. F. (1991) A survey of the Anglo-Ecuadorian study on the environmen­ montane forest avifauna of the Loja Prov­ tal impacts of gold mining in the park4. These ince, southern Ecuador. Cambridge, U.K.: miners used an estimated 55 kg of mercury International Council for Bird Preservation each year, all of which was released into the (Study Report 49). environment. The study mentioned above 2. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. R, Krabbe, N., found mercury levels (4.6–61.2 µg/g) in stream Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, sediment at the mining sites to be between T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened birds 10 and 100 times above the natural back­ of the Americas: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data ground levels. Mercury levels were also high Book (Third edition, part 2). Cambridge, in the rivers (1.75–4.45 µg/g) in the nearby city U. K.: International Council for Bird Pres­ of Loja where much of the gold-mercury amal­ ervation. gam is burnt. 3. Toyne, E. P., Jeffcote, M. T. & Flanagan, J. These data highlighted the danger of mer­ N. (1992) Status, distribution and ecology cury poisoning from small-scale mining opera­ of the White-breasted Parakeet Pyrrhura tions in the park to both wildlife and local albipectus in Podocarpus National Park, human populations. Thankfully in March 1994 southern Ecuador. Bird Conserv. Internatn. the military police expelled the illegal miners 2: 327-339. from San Luis. However, INEFAN and other 4. Vallée, D. (1992) Environmental impacts of governmental bodies are currently reviewing gold mining in Podocarpus National Park, gold mining in all national parks and there­ southern Ecuador. Unpublished MSc the­ fore this reprieve for the park may just be tem­ sis (Imperial College, London). porary and readers are urged to support the campaign led by Arcoiris (a small ecological E. Paul Toyne NGO based in Loja). Letters of support for the Department of Biology, Imperial College, Lon­ withdrawal of all mining activities in Ecua­ don SW7 2BB, U.K. dor’s national parks should be sent to:

8 COTINGA 2 Neotropical News The fate of the Isla Yacyretã, Ñeembucu, The initial flooding has now taken place, Paraguay. and little of the island will remain by late The largest of a number of low islands lying 1994. The company Entidad Binacional in the Río Paraná along the southern border Yacyretã (EBY) is providing 5 million Guaraní of Paraguay was the Isla Yacyretã (27°27'S (c.US$3,000) compensation to the families 56°48'W), originally covering 44 731 ha. With whose land was lost with the completion of the completion in late 1993 of the Represa the dam, which is seen as far too little by the Yacyretã, Isla Yacyretã and the surrounding islanders (V. Rios pers. comm.). Environmen­ delta of Bosque Arary have now been flooded tal compensation is being provided by the EBY (see also3). The Bosque Arary was listed in in the form of helicopter and boat rescue for CDC2 as the second highest priority for con­ some of the island fauna, to then be placed in servation in eastern Paraguay due to its bio­ a newly created 41 650 ha reserve, Cabacera logical uniqueness and its scenic value — the Arroyo Yabebyry (A. Madroño N. pers. comm.). name Yacyretã is the Guaraní indian word for Very few people know of the fate of Isla the “home of the moon”, a testimony to the Yacyretã, and although it is now too late to great beauty of the island. About 20 Para­ save the island, knowledge of what has been guayan families lived there in small farms, lost with the drowning of Paraguay’s largest and depended on Yacyretã for their livelihoods. island may at least attract attention to the The majority of the island comprised im­ adjacent diverse natural grasslands of penetrable grassy marshland: however, where Ñeembucu, which are threatened by encroach­ the it reached its widest point (towards the ing development. San Cosme y Damián is the eastern tip), there was an area of terra firma nearest town to Yacyretã and the adjacent c.6,000 ha in size. This was encircled by for grasslands, and is easily accessible for a bird­ est, predominantly “arary” Calophyllum ing trip direct by bus from Asunción. Put it on brasiliense, a species otherwise restricted to your itinerary for the Neotropical Ornithologi­ Amazonia and dependent on saturated soils. cal Congress in August 1995. Inland of the forest lay a cerrado plain of grass and small palms. In some places the forest References was up to 500 m wide, but in others the 1. Brooks, T. M., Barnes, R., Bartrina, L., cerrado ran directly into the marsh. At the Butchart, S. H. M., Clay, R. P, Esquivel, E. southern end of the island there was a small Z., Etcheverrey, N. I., Lowen, J. C. and Vin­ area of sand dunes (Cerro Ybycuí) which cent, J. (1993) Bird surveys and conserva­ formed the highest point on the island and tion in the Paraguayan Atlantic Forest. afforded a spectacular scenic vista. Study Report 57. Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife The authors spent three days (28–30 Sep­ International. tember 1992) birding on the Isla Yacyretã, 2. Centro de Datos para la Conservación (1990) during which time 112 species of bird were Areas prioritarias para la conservación en recorded, including four species of tinamou, la región Oriental del Paraguay. Asunción: 11 species of raptor, seven species of pigeon, CDC. Toco Toucan Ramphastos toco, seven species 3. Garabetyan, E., Serret, A. & Bertonatti, C. of woodpecker, Swallow-tailed Manakin (1994) Nunca mas Yacyretá. Vida Silvestre Chiroxiphia caudata, 22 tyrannid species and 36: 10–17. various other riverine, gallery forest and waterbird species. Bare-faced Curassow Crax Thomas Brooks fasciolata and Crested Oropendola Dept, of Zoology, M313 Walters Life Sciences Psarocolius decumanus were present on the Building, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, island but difficult to observe, and a range of TN 37996-0810. U.S.A. rare mammals was present including Giant Anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Collared Estela Esquivel A nteater Tamandua tetradactyla, Black c/o Dr Miguel Morales, Fundación Moisés Howler Monkey Alouatta caraya, Maned Wolf Bertoni, Rodriguez de Francia 770, CC 714, Chrysocyon brachurus and Marsh Deer Asunción, Paraguay. Blastocerus dichotomus. A full list of species is given in Brooks et al.1

9 COTINGA 2 Neotropical News The rediscovery of Pelzeln’s Tody-Tyrant 2. Cory, C. B. & Hellmayr, C. E. (1927) Cata­ Hemitriccus inornatus after 161 years! logue of birds of the Americas, Part V. Field Until recently Pelzeln’s Tody-Tyrant Mus. Nat. Hist Zool. Ser. 13 (Publ. 242). Hemitriccus inornatus was known only from the single nineteenth century museum speci­ Andrew Whittaker men, collected in June 1831 by Natterer on Conjunto Acariquara Sul, Rua Samaumas the Rio Içana, a right bank tributary of the 214, Manaus, Amazonas 69085-053, Brazil. upper Rio Negro in north-western Brazil. With just this lone specimen as evidence (placed in Kirtland’s W arbler still increasing a bank vault in Vienna, Austria, and relatively Breeding surveys of Kirtland’s Warbler inaccessible to most Neotropical ornitholo­ Dendroica kirtlandii, which winters in the gists), the taxonomic status of this taxon has Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, lo­ been questioned during the intervening years. cated 485 singing males in Michigan, U.S.A. At 14h45 on the afternoon of 10 October 1992, in 1993, the largest number since 1961. whilst walking a trail through campina for­ Source: Orn. Newsletter 98: 3, 1994. est on the east bank of the Rio Negro, c.45 km north of Manaus, I heard an unfamiliar bird Arctic Peregrine Falcon on the increase call — an insect-like series of high picks, remi­ The Arctic Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus niscent of the genus Hemitriccus. Kevin tundrinus which breeds in arctic areas of Zimmer and I approached the area from where Alaska, Canada and Greenland, but winters the calls originated, and made tape-recordings as far south as Argentina has been proposed of the bird. When played back, these calls for removal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife lured out a small, unfamiliar Hemitriccus with Service list of threatened species. The popu­ a pale abdomen. After reading the available lation of Arctic Peregrines was decimated be­ literature(1,2), we came to the conclusion that tween 1940 and 1970 due to the effects DDT this bird was probably Hemitriccus inornatus. pesticides had on their reproductive success. On 9 February 1993 I returned to the same Populations began to recover after the 1972 site with Mario Cohn-Haft and collected a ban of DDT in the U.S.A., and their present specimen (another was collected later in 1993). level is deemed to be high enough to warrant When compared to the type-specimen in Vi­ down-listing. enna early in 1994, their identity was con­ Source: Endangered Species Techn. Bull. firmed as Pelzeln’s Tody-Tyrant Hemitriccus 18(4): 1, 1993. inornatus, rediscovered after 161 years. This record from north of Manaus extends California Condor update the species’s range approximately 1000 km At the end of 1993, there were 75 California east-south-east of the Rio Içana type-locality. Condors, up from 27 in 1987. Sixty-six of these However, since acquiring knowledge of it’s vo­ are held in three captive breeding centres in calization, I have located several other areas the U.S.A. In 1992, eight captive-produced harbouring populations of Hemitriccus condors were released in Los Padres National inornatus. These lie further up the Rio Negro Forest, but half of these died in the first year: on two right bank tributaries, the Rio Apuaú three collided with power lines and a fourth and the Rio Cuieras, respectively c.80 km ingested leaked radiator fluid. The remaining north-west, and c.60 km west of our original four birds were captured and released together campina site: further details about with another five captive-produced birds in a Hemitriccus inornatus, it’s rediscovery, habi­ remoter location, Lion Canyon. Clearly, whilst tat and behaviour are being documented by the species seems to be reproducing well in A. Whittaker and K. J. Zimmer (in prep.). captivity, its future as a wild-flying species must still be in serious doubt. [Eds. The Cali­ References fornia Condor was previously distributed 1. von Pelzeln, A. (1868–1871) Zur Ornithologie throughout northern Mexico, with the last con­ Brasiliens: Resultate von Johann Natterers firmed Mexican sighting in Baja California Reisen in den Jahren 1817 bis 1835. Wien: during 1937]. A. Pichler’s Witwe und Sohn. Source: Endangered Species Techn. Bull. 18(4): 18, 1993.

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U.S.A.-Mexico trans-border reserve americana, White-winged Doves Zenaida Mexico and the U.S.A. have designated a asiatica and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers 17 000 km2 trans-boundary protected area that Tyrannus forficatus. extends from the Sonora desert, up the Gulf of Source: Hawk Mountain Flyer 2(2), 1993. California to the Arizona border from where it becomes contiguous with Organ Pipe, New Guyana’s forest under siege Mexico and Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. Guyana still boasts some of the most intact Source: Commission on National Parks and and inaccessible lowland rain forest in the Protected Areas Newsletter 60: 10, 1993. neotropics, but it seems that this is unlikely to last. Of the country’s 16 million ha of for­ New threats to Three-wattled Bellbird est, the Guyanese Government has already id e n tifie d leased out 9.1 million ha to logging compa­ A study by RARE Center of the seasonal move­ nies. Reports suggest that some of these com­ ments of Three-wattled Bellbirds Procnias panies, in particular Barama, part-owned by tricarunculata in Cost Rica and Nicaragua has Samling Timbers of Malaysia, have broken highlighted the vulnerability of intratropical promises on logging practices and are having migrants that depend on more than one eco­ a devastating effect on the forests, which grow system during their annual cycle. Provisional on very poor soils. A new road, from Brazil to monitoring of the movements of 19 radio- Georgetown, is under construction and likely tagged Three-wattled Bellbirds has shown to exacerbate present problems as increasing that they move from montane sites in north- numbers of Brazilian migrants, settlers, trap­ central Costa Rica to lowland sites in south­ pers, miners, loggers and drug traders move eastern Nicaragua and then to sites along the into the country. Pacific coast in south-west Costa Rica. This Source: BBC Wildlife February: 64, 1994. highly complex seasonal movement involves usage of at least four different ecosystems, Private land gift extends Venezuelan park some of which are virtually unprotected. A private donation of a 74 285 ha parcel of land Hence the future viability of this species is in to the U.S.A. Nature Conservancy (TNC) has seriously doubt, unless major initiatives are been signed over to the Venezuelan park serv­ taken to provide protection of its critical habi­ ice (INPARQUES). The land will be incorpo­ tats. rated into the adjacent Aguaro-Guariquito Source: Intratropical Migrations of Three- National Park, and represents one of the few wattled Bellbirds: Identifying Habitat Link­ remnants of upper savanna grasslands (up­ ages to Protect Biodiversity. Progress Report, per llanos) in the country. This park is home November 1993. RARE Center for Tropical to a number of endangered species, and has a Conservation. high bird species diversity. Source: Commission on National Parks and 1993 raptor migration in Veracruz, Mexico Protected Areas Newsletter 60: 9, 1993. Details of the 1992 raptor migration though Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico were reported Gentoo Penguins doing well on the Falk- on in Cotinga 1: 10, 1994, but observations lands during the fall 1993 migration have provided Surveys of the 24 Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis additional information. During September and papua colonies throughout the Falkland Is­ October 1993 c.1 million raptors were seen lands / Las Malvinas found a total of 23 500 travelling along this migratory highway. These pairs during the 1992/1993 breeding season, included more than 30 000 Mississippi Kites a similar number to the previous year. How­ Ictinia mississippiensis, at least 40 Hook­ ever, results of comparable surveys under­ billed Kites Chondrohierax uncinatus and 35 taken between 1932 and 1994 show that there Swallow-tailed Kites Elanoides forficatus. has been a decline averaging 3% per year since Thousands of non-raptors were also counted 1987. on migration at the watchpoints, including Source: Penguin News 5(32): 7–8,1993; and thousands of White Pelicans Pelecanus The Warrah 5: 5, 1994. erythrorhynchos, Wood Storks Mycteria

11 COTINGA 2 Neotropical News

Stronghold for Jabiru discovered in Nicara­ Status of the West Indies’ only nuthatch gu a Recent field and museum studies of the en­ In March 1992, aerial surveys in the Miskito demic race of Brown-headed Nuthatch Sitta Coast Protected Area on the Atlantic coast of pusilla insularis, confined to Grand Bahama Nicaragua revealed that the area was one of Island, has found that it differs visually, vo­ the few remaining strongholds for Jabiru cally and behaviourally compared to mainland Jabiru mycteria and other large waterbirds south Florida populations. The frequency with north of Venezuela. During the surveys, 74 which P. W. Smith and S. A. Smith encoun­ individual Jabiru and six active nests were tered the species when compared to densities observed, as well as an active colony of Wood determined 25 years ago, suggest that the Storks Mycteria americana and Roseate West Indies’ only nuthatch has declined pre­ Spoonbills Ajaja ajaja. cipitously and may be heading for extinction, Source: IWRB/IUCN/BirdLife Specialist due in-part to the rapid clear-cutting of its Group on Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills habitat. Newsletter 6 (1/2): 5, 1993. Source: El Pitirre 7(1): 5 , 1994. Abstracts from the Caribbean Soc. of Ornith. meeting, 1993.

12 COTINGA 3 Neotropical News Neotropical News

The conservation status of the Cordillera de photo, p40) and Grey-breasted Mountain-tou­ Colán, northern Peru. can Andigena hypoglauca1. A team of Cambridge University students and Other notable project records included an other British and Peruvian ornithologists spent apparently healthy population of Spectacled seven weeks in July–September 1994 survey­ Bear Tremarctos ornatus (currently surviv­ ing the birds and mammals of cloud and elfin ing despite severe hunting pressure), the forest on the Cordillera de Colán, Amazonas threatened Peruvian Pigeon Columba oenops department, northern Peru. This survey work and Yellow-faced Parrotlet Forpus xanthops, was centred on the southern end of the west­ and near-threatened Black-and-chestnut Ea­ ern slope of the Colán, c.60 km east of Bagua gle Oroaetus isidori1. The enigmatic Long- Grande. whiskered Owlet Xenoglaux loweryi was not The Cordillera de Colán is a semi-isolated recorded. mountain range lying to the east of the main The fauna and flora of the Colán is, how­ Andean chain. It is bordered to the south by ever, under great threat. The area visited by the Río Utcubamba, to the north by the Río the project has an alarmingly high deforesta­ Chiriaco and to the west by the Río Marañón. tion rate. An ornithological survey of the This area supports a number of endemic birds cordillera led by Tom Schulenberg in 1978 and mammals. found large tracts of virgin forest (T. S. Originally the Cordillera de Colán was cov­ Schulenberg verbally 1990). Most of this for­ ered in an intricate mosaic of habitats includ­ est has now gone and what is left is rapidly ing Marañón dry forest, humid forest, montane being cleared to grow cash-crops, particularly cloud-forest, humid ridgetop forest, pajonal and marijuana and coffee. In addition much of the elfin forest extending down to the unusually land around villages is under unofficial ten­ low altitude of 1600 m. Sixteen restricted- ure to families for the logging of valuable ma­ range species from six Endemic Bird Areas hogany Cedrella trees. Even the forest at high (EBAs)4 were recorded by the project on the altitude is affected by selective logging and Colán. grazing. Locals estimate that within 10 years The project found healthy populations of the whole Cordillera de Colán will be com­ several threatened birds and mammals with pletely deforested. Urgent conservation ac­ the scant remaining elfin forest supporting spe­ tion to protect what remains of the forest in cialist species such as Russet-mantled Softtail this important area is strongly recom­ Thripophaga berlepschii (near-threatened) and mended. Details of the projects results, con­ Royal Sunangel Heliangelus regalis clusions and recommendations are presented (threatened:see photo, p40)1. This is only the in a report The conservation status of the third locality from which H. regalis is known2. Cordillera de Colán3 available on request The surveyed areas of cloud-forest held an ex­ from Charles Davies (at the address below). tremely high concentration and diversity of fru- givores, most notably two threatened species R eferences of monkey including the poorly known and 1. Collar N. J., Crosby M. J. & Stattersfield highly threatened Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey A. J. (1994) Birds to watch 2: the world list Lagothrix flavicauda (which has an extremely of threatened birds. Cambridge, U.K.: small distributional range), Military Macaw BirdLife International (BirdLife Conser­ Ara militaris and Golden-plumed Conure vation Series 4). Leptosittaca branickii (both threatened) and 2. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. P, Krabbe, N., the near-threatened Scaled Fruiteater Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, Ampelioides tschudii see photo, p40), Black­ T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened birds chested Fruiteater Pipreola lubomirskii (see of the Americas: the ICBP / IUCN Red Data

6 COTINGA 3 Neotropical News Book (Third edition, part 2). Cambridge, count stood at over 3 million raptors, with U.K.: International Council for Bird Pres­ Turkey Vultures Cathartes aura, Broad­ ervation. winged Hawks Buteo platypterus and 3. Davies, C. W. N., Barnes, R., Butchart, S. Swainson’s Hawks B. swainsoni comprising H. M., Fernández, M. & Seddon, N. (1994) most of the birds seen. This now famous raptor The conservation status of the Cordillera flyway has led ecotours to visit the area, in­ de Colán: a report based on bird and mam­ cluding one run by Hawk Mountain Sanctu­ mal surveys in 1994. Unpublished report. ary (U.S.A.) to the town of Cardel. 4. Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. Source: Hawk Mountain Flyer 3(2): 2, 1994. J. & Wege, D. C. (in prep.) A global direc­ tory of endemic bird areas. Cambridge, U.K.: Scarlet M a c a w s in Belize BirdLife International (BirdLife Conserva­ Recent studies in Belize have estimated the tion Series). country’s population of Scarlet Macaw Ara macao to be 30–60 birds, located within two Roger Barnes, Stuart Butchart, Rob Clay, basins in the remote Raspaculo watershed, Charles Davies, Nathalie Seddon. which is threatened by a dam. The studies sug­ Clare College, Cambridge, CB2 1TL, U.K. gest that the birds of the two basins may ac­ tually be one population, crossing through one or two passes in the Maya Mountain divide. Kirtland’s Warbler: a record year If this is the case then this single population Surveys of Kirtland’s Warbler Dendroica needs a large area and secure long-distance kirtlandii, which winters in the Bahamas and flight routes for survival. Turks and Caicos Islands, found 633 singing Source: Conserv. Sci. Quarterly Spring/ males on the breeding grounds in Michigan, Summer: 3, 1994., also; Mallory, E. P. (1994) U.S.A. during 1994, representing a 30% in­ BAS Newsletter 26(3): 11. crease over the last year, and surpassing the previous record of 502 males heard in 1961. Jabiru in Belize: a poor y e a r Source: National Audubon Society Field 1994 saw the Belize population of Jabiru Notes 48: 170, 1994. Jabiru mycteria reduced to just one success­ ful nest (with two healthy chicks), located in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. A new nest spotted in March was abandoned, evi­ dently disturbed by logging and two other nests kept under observation were also un­ successful. Source: Belize Audubon Soc. Newsletter 26(2): 15, 1994.

Glow-throated Hummingbird found on the Azuero Peninsula The threatened Glow-throated Hummingbird Selasphorus ardens, previously thought to be restricted to the Serranía de Tabasará in west­ ern and central Panama, has just been found Kirtland’s Warbler Dendroica kirtlandii 175 km south on the Azuero Peninsula. This (David D. Beadle) poorly known endemic was discovered in Raptor records in Veracruz, Mexico March 1994 during fieldwork in the Cerro The third fall count of the Veracruz Migration Hoya National Park in the south of the penin­ Project, which is managed by Pronatura- sula when a single individual was mist-net­ Veracruz under the capable direction of ted. However, further investigations are Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza, has broken a number needed to determine if this isolated popula­ of its own records including a 900 000 plus tion is taxonomically distinct. single-day count of raptors during the first Source: Engleman, D. (1994) The Toucan week of October 1994. By mid-October, the Fall 20(7): 4–5.

7 COTINGA 3 Neotropical News Puerto Rican Parrots on the increase North Andros Island during July 1994. M. The Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona vittata, bonariensis is a brood parasite and has had a which reached an all-time low wild popula­ detrimental effect on the populations of a tion of 13 birds in 1975, recovered during the number of island endemics such as Martinique following 14 years to 47 wild individuals. How­ Oriole Icterus bonana so this most recent ever, in September 1989 Hurricane Hugo re­ range expansion may well have a significant duced this population to 22 birds when it biological impact. passed over north-eastern Puerto Rico. In Source: Baltz, M. E. (1994) El Pitirre 7(3): 1994 a (post-hurricane) record 14 chicks 4. [also Eds.] fledged from wild nests. DNA fingerprinting is being used to help reduce inbreeding and Seabirds threatened on Aruba therefore increase the fledgling success rate The government of Aruba, Netherlands Anti­ of the captive population which produced lles, intends to develop for watersports an area seven chicks in 1994. near sensitive coral reefs and seabird nesting Source: Vélez-Valentín, J. (1994) El Pitirre colonies. The plan seriously endangers 10 000 7(3): 4–5. pairs of nine species of nesting seabirds, in­ cluding Sandwich Terns Sterna sandvicensis Cayman Islands’ first RAMSAR site desig­ and Roseate Terns S. dougallii and is a sub­ n a te d ject of great concern for conservationists on The Cayman Islands has designated its first the island. RAMSAR wetland site of international impor­ Source: El Pitirre 7(3): 13, 1994. tance. Using money raised by the Governor’s Fund for Nature (and a grant from the Brit­ Flamingo census in the Galápagos Islands, ish Government), 80 ha of swamp, fringed by E cuador mangroves and surrounded by dry evergreen A survey in early 1994 of Greater Flamingo thickets, has been set aside on Little Cayman, Phoenicopterus ruber glyphorhynchus primarily for the important breeding colony populations on Floreana, Isabela, Jervis, of Red-footed Booby Sula sula. An estimated Santa Cruz and Santiago Islands in the 5000 pairs of boobies breed in the sanctuary, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, found 366 birds which is known locally as the “Booby Pond and comprising 247 adults, 96 of undetermined Rookery”. The wetland is also important for a age, 22 juveniles and only one chick. The larg­ number of other birds including migrant wad­ est concentration on the islands was of 100 ers and wintering herons. adults and 26 of unknown age in Quinta Playa, Source: Michael Gore in litt. (1994). Isabela. Source: Galápagos Bull. 3, 1994. National park created in the Bahamas The Prime Minister of the Bahamas officially Brown-banded Antpitta rediscovered declared a national park in southern Abaco The Brown-banded Antpitta Grallaria milleri, which protects most of the nesting habitat for a threatened endemic of the Colombian Cen­ the endangered subspecies “Bahamas” Parrot tral Andes which had gone unrecorded since Amazona leucocephala bahamensis. A national and international education campaign led by the Bahamas National Trust, RARE Center for Tropical Conservation and the Bahama Parrot Conservation Committee helped in­ crease conservation awareness for the plight of this parrot and played a major part in the creation of the park. Source: Gnam, R. (1994) El Pitirre 7(3): 13.

Shiny Cowbirds reach the Bahamas The Shiny Cowbird Molothrus bonariensis has just been recorded for the first time in the Bahamas with up to five individuals seen on Brown-banded Antpitta Grallaria milleri (Lyn Wells)

8 COTINGA 3 Neotropical News 1942, has been rediscovered in Ucumarí Re­ gional Park, Risaralda department. An indi­ vidual was captured (and released) during rou­ tine mist-netting in May 1994, at 2,300 m near the La Pastora station in a 20 year old sec­ ondary forest with abundant Chusquea bam­ boo. Ucumarí (which is important for a number of threatened birds) is within the Río Otún watershed immediately north of the Salento area whence most of this species’ pre­ vious records originate. Source: Gustavo Kattan in litt. 1994.

Planting trees for Lear’s M acaw

Hooded Grebe Podiceps gallardoi (FVSA) gentina (FVSA) found 462 P. gallardoi feed­ ing amongst sea lions, porpoises and Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus at the Coyle estuary on Atlantic coast of Santa Cruz province, southernmost Argentina. How­ ever, despite searches in similar bays and es­ tuaries along 250 km of this coast these were the only birds found (except one individual near San Julián bay). It is hoped that more detailed surveys will discover the remainder of the population. Source: Andrés Johnson and Alejandro Serret in litt. 1994 Lear’s Macaw Anodorhynchus leari (Lyn Wells) Hope for Helmeted Woodpecker in Plans have been made to plant 20 000–30 000 Misiones, Argentina licuri palm trees in Bahia, eastern Brazil. The A series of recent records of the threatened nuts of this palm are the main food of the Helmeted Woodpecker Dryocopus galeatus threatened Lear’s Macaw Anodorhynchus from Misiones province, Argentina, suggest leari, of which only c.65 remain in the wild. that it’s conservation status is more favour­ At present birds have to fly considerable dis­ able than previously thought. A pair of this tances to their feeding grounds and in doing species (which is confined to primary tracts so are easy targets for hunters. of Atlantic forest in southern south-east Bra­ Source: Avicult. Mag. 100(1): 54, 1994. zil, eastern Paraguay and northernmost Ar­ gentina) were observed on numerous occasions Hooded Grebe wintering grounds discov­ during October 1994 within Iguazú National e re d Park in the vicinity of the television receiver. The Hooded Grebe Podiceps gallardoi was dis­ At the same time B. L. Lanus and J. Mazar covered as recently as 1974 and has been found found a pair breeding at Puerto Peninsula, to breed on c. 130 ponds scattered throughout Iguazú department, Misiones. In recent years, c.700 km of pre-Andean foothills in southern M. Castelino has located four pairs of D. Argentina, with a population estimated at galeatus in Iguazú National Park and has also 3000–5000 birds. With the onset of winter found the species to the south in modified these ponds freeze over and P. gallardoi dis­ woodlands at Puerto Rico, L. G. San Martin appears, its wintering grounds remaining a department, Misiones. mystery until their discovery in 1994. Field Source: Esteban I. Abadie in litt. 1994. biologists from Fundación Vida Silvestre Ar-

9 COTINGA 3 Taxonomic Round-up

Chronic oil pollution affects Magellanic Pen­ New nature reserves purchased off East guins in Chubut, Argentina Falkland An analysis of Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus Motley Island (330 ha) and Middle Island magellanicus carcasses along the Chubut (150 ha), together with their associated islets, coast of Argentina suggests that birds found were purchased by Falklands Conservation oiled in February and March each year repre­ during October 1994. The islands, which ap­ sent 1.1% of the adult and 6.0% of the fledg­ pear to be rat free, lie close to Lively Island ling penguin population. Since penguins mi­ off the south-east coast of East Falkland and grate twice a year more than 20 000 adults comprise various habitats including and 22 000 juveniles may be killed along heathland, sand-dune, grassland, marsh and 3000 km of Argentine coast each year due to open ponds. Whilst the islands lack any large oil pollution, suggesting that chronic oil pol­ seabird colonies they appear to support an lution is a significant mortality factor for the exceptional diversity of wildlife although their species and may be depressing the population. full importance will not be known until de­ Source: Gandini, P. et al. (1994) Auk 111: tailed ecological surveys can be carried out. 20–27. Source: The Warrah 6: 1, 1994.

10 C O TIN G A 4 Neotropical News Neotropical News

A stronghold for Long-wattled near-threatened birds1. The threatened Ru­ Umbrellabird discovered in Ecuador fous-headed Chachalaca Ortalis erythroptera The Long-wattled Umbrellabird Cephalo- was also reported to occur, and both this spe­ pterus penduliger is a rare and local cies and the threatened Esmeraldas Woodstar inhabitant of humid and wet forest on the Acestrura berlepschi, Ochraceous Attila Attila Pacific slope of the Andes in south-west Co­ torridus and Scarlet-breasted Dacnis Dacnis lombia and western Ecuador. The species is berlepschi were seen nearby in 1993 (R. S. poorly known, very rarely encountered and Ridgely in litt. 1994). considered at risk of global extinction2. Threats to the bird include habitat destruction (less than 0.8% of western Ecuador’s tropical wet forest remain3), trapping for trade, and hunt­ ing for food2. From 12 February to 2 March 1994, Project Esmeraldas conducted the first ornithological fieldwork at the proposed Jatun Sacha Bilsa Biological Reserve in Esmeraldas province, north-west Ecuador. In this area was found a healthy and easily observable population of Long-wattled Umbrellabird, with a minimum of 14 birds recorded (at an encounter rate of 13 birds per 100 field-hours). This is the first time the bird has been recorded in such num­ bers with such regularity. The Bilsa reserve (0°22'N 79°45'W) is lo­ cated between Muisne on the coast and Quinende, in the Mache mountains which Long-wattled Umbrellabird Cephalopterus penduliger form part of the coastal cordillera. The site covers an elevational range of 400 to 700 m. Since March 1994, 800 ha of the proposed re­ The Mache mountains support the last re­ serve have been purchased by Fundación maining extensive tract of wet tropical forest Jatun Sacha, but unless immediate action is in western Ecuador4, and perhaps the most taken this reserve will soon become an iso­ significant remaining umbrellabird popula­ lated fragment of forest, as deforestation is tion. The project’s records of this species are proceeding at an alarmingly rapid rate in the the first evidence of a resident population area, encroaching upon the remaining forest away from the Andes (all previous records from all directions. In 1991, a Conservation have been ascribed to altitudinal migration: International Rapid Assessment Program R. S. Ridgely in litt. 1994) and along with other team, noted that the forest at a nearby site, first records of species away from the Andes Cabeceras de Bilsa, was being felled faster (Clay et al. in prep.), highlight the biogeo- than they could study it and considered that graphical importance of the remaining forest this last remaining extensive tract of forest on the coastal cordillera. would, within five years, deteriorate into nu­ Project Esmeraldas also recorded two other merous tiny fragments or be lost altogether4. globally threatened species, namely Grey- Three years on, and this loss was already well backed Hawk Leucopternis occidentalis and under way, but at least the establishment of Brown Wood-Rail Aramides wolfi, and seven one small reserve gives some hope. The pro­

6 C O T IN G A 4 Neotropical News tection of a large block of this last extensive abandoned plantations, and in secondary- tract of forest must be amongst the highest growth less than 10 m tall, potentially conservation priorities in the Neotropics, and indicating some flexibility in ecological re­ it can only be hoped that this is achieved be­ quirements. fore the opportunity to fully investigate this Future fieldwork will concentrate on locat­ important area is lost forever. ing additional sabrewings along other trails R eferences and obtaining behavioural and ecological data. 1. Clay, R. R, Jack, S. R. & Vincent, J. R Any recent information (especially on nesting) (1994) A survey of the birds and large mam­ from birders seeing the species on Tobago mals of the proposed Jatun Sacha Bilsa would be greatly appreciated. Biological Reserve, north-western Ecuador. T-shirts with a painting of sabrewings by Unpublished report. John P. O’Neill are being sold to raise further 2. Collar N. J., Crosby, M. J. & Stattersfield, funds: if interested in purchasing a T-shirt, A. J. (1994) Birds to watch 2: the world list please contact either of the first two authors of threatened birds. Cambridge, U.K.: at the address below. Birdlife International (Birdlife Conserva­ The initial study was funded by the Center tion Series 4). for the Study of Tropical Birds and Trinidad 3. Dodson, C. H. & Gentry, A. H. (1991) Bio­ & Tobago National Petroleum Marketing Com­ logical extinction in western Ecuador. Ann. pany Ltd. Binoculars were donated by the Missouri Bot. Gard. 78: 273–295. Manomet Bird Observatory Birders’ Ex­ 4. Parker, T. A. and Carr, J. L., eds. (1992) change. Subsequent support for the project Status of forest remnants in the Cordillera de came from the BP Conservation Expedition la Costa and adjacent areas of southwestern Competition of BirdLife International and Ecuador (Rapid Assessment Program). Wash­ Fauna & Flora International. ington, D.C.: Conservation International. R eferences Rob Clay, Stuart Jack, Jon Vincent 1. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. R, Krabbe, N., Large Animal Research Group, Dept, of Zoology, Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cam­ T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened birds bridge, CB2 3EJ, U.K. of the Americas: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book (Third edition, part 2). Cambridge, White-tailed Sabrewing population recov­ U.K.: International Council for Bird Pres­ ering on Tobago ervation. The globally threatened White-tailed Sabre­ 2. ffrench, R. P. (1975) Some noteworthy bird wing Campylopterus ensipennis is known only records from Tobago. J. Trinidad and Tobago from three disjunct populations, two in north­ Field Nat. Club 1975: 5–11. ern Venezuela (the Paria Peninsula and 3. ffrench, R. P. (1991) A guide to the birds of Cordillera de Caripe) and one on Tobago1. The Trinidad and Tobago. Second edition. Tobago population was thought to be extinct Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. following Hurricane Flora in 1963, but was Floyd E. Hayes, Angelle L. Bullard, Dale “rediscovered” by Richard ffrench in 19742, and R. Hardy, Davley-Ann D. Wilson, Delamae has since been regarded as very small but J. Wilson, Theodore O. Garnett, Mavis V. gradually recovering3. B e r n a r d , B r ia n Y. Y. W ong, H o r a c e S. During 20–24 March 1995, a team of 11 fac­ Gurley, Victor L. Joseph, Marta M. Hayes. ulty members and students from Caribbean Department of Biology, Caribbean Union College, Union College conducted a preliminary study P.O. Box 175, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. on the status, distribution and behaviour of the White-tailed Sabrewing on Tobago. Canadian “Eskimo Curlew” nest now The study found 32 sabrewings along c.17.5 thought to be Whimbrel’s km of trails in the Main Ridge Forest Reserve, A nest, reported as being that of an Eskimo suggesting that the population is recovering Curlew Numenius borealis, discovered in the well. Most of the birds were found in tall, dense Northwest Territories of Canada in 1992 is forest which is recovering from the hurricane now, after lengthy research, thought to have of 1963. Some sabrewings were seen at the been that of a Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus. edge of clearings, in forest patches within This rather disappointing conclusion was

7 C O T IN G A 4 Neotropical News reached after a thorough survey of the area Parrots in Dominica revealed a high population of Whimbrels but A survey of the endemic parrots of Dominica no sign of any curlews. Additionally, photo­ in March–May 1994 as part of the Dominican graphs taken of the nests and eggs of Multiple Land-Use Project located nine active Whimbrels during the survey resembled the Red-necked Parrot Amazona arausiaca nests. photographs of a nest with eggs on which the No nests of Imperial Parrot Amazona imperialis original, tentative identification had primarily were found, but two birds were observed, been based. The search continues for the en­ apparently holding territory. The survey was igmatic Eskimo Curlew, both on its (historic) concentrated on the forested areas of the breeding grounds, its migration routes and its north-east and, as well as searching for nests Neotropical winter quarters but this latest and other evidence of breeding activity, setback, coming after the erroneous reporting systematic watches were undertaken at 25 of the species in Argentina (see Cotinga 3: 69) sites as part of a long term population moni­ suggests that the future is extremely bleak for toring programme. Comparing results from this bird. the previous year, the team estimated a 10% Source: Ontario Field Ornithologists News­ increase in Red-necked Parrot numbers as letter, January 1995. well as an expansion in range, but the popu­ lation of Imperial Parrot was not judged to West Indian Whistling-Duck now have increased or expanded. Most of the Red­ increasing on the Caymans necked Parrot nests were on private land Numbers of the globally threatened West In­ and were considered to be vulnerable to dian Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna arborea on disturbance or destruction from agricultural Grand Cayman were recently estimated at 100 practices. pairs, representing an increase of at least 90 Source: Peter G. H. Evans in litt. 1994. pairs in the last five years. Numbers on Little Cayman have also increased to about 30 pairs Waterfowl catastrophe on Mexican and in 1994 breeding was reported from reservoir Cayman Brae for the first time in many years. An estimated 40 000 waterbirds of 22 species Source: Pan American News 10(1): 4, 1995. died last winter at a reservoir near Léon, Mexico. Many were migrants from North America, including Eared Grebe Podiceps nigricollis, White-faced Ibis Plegadis chihi, Gadwall Anas strepera, Northern Pintail Anas acuta, Cinnamon Anas cyanoptera and Green­ winged A. crecca Teals, Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis and American Avocet Recurvirostra americana. Local residents who used the water to irrigate crops and water their live­ stock, and hunted the ducks for food, also reported symptoms consistent with poisoning. Mexico’s National Water Commission suggested that an agricultural pesticide was West Indian Whistling-duck Dendrocygna arborea responsible, but autopsies of some of the birds (Jon Fjeldså ) revealed that many of them suffered heavy metal poisoning from waste water released New reserve on Grand Cayman by chemical plants and tanneries. The A mountain reserve of dry evergreen wood­ National Audubon Society, its Mexican chap­ land has been established on Grand Cayman, ters and two other Mexican non-government funded by a grant from the British Govern­ organisations have filed a petition with the ment and from donations to a newly North American Commission on Environmen­ established Governor’s Fund for Nature, which tal Cooperation asking them to investigate the was set up by Governor Michael Gore in 1993. incident. Source: Pan American News 10(1): 4 , 1995. Source: Audubon Field Notes 49(1): 6, 1995.

8 C O T IN G A 4 Neotropical News Mexican Scarlet Macaw population still in and is in forest just outside Tikal National decline Park. Unfortunately the single egg was taken Recent censuses have shown that the Mexi­ by a predator, but the area is being monitored can population of Scarlet Macaw Ara macao is in the hope that the birds will make another now no more than 424 individuals, all of them attempt in the near future. Although on un­ in the Selva Lacandona region of south-east­ protected land, the local farmers are interested ern Chiapas. Moreover, it is estimated that in the eagle’s welfare and have agreed not to only 50% of them are in good breeding condi­ conduct any further deforestation in the vi­ tion and that up to 50 birds a year may be cinity of the nest. captured, presumably for the cagebird trade. Source: Birds of the Wild 3(4): 9, 1995 & Source: Pan American News 10(2): 2, 1995. Audubon Field Notes 48: 910, 1994.

Snail Kites colonise lake in Panama Snail Kites Rostrhamus sociabilis have been recorded, apparently for the first time, at Gigante Bay in the canal area of Panama. The birds (14–20 of them) have been in the area since May or June 1994, according to the STRI game warden, and at least four nests were found in February 1995. Surveys of the area in 1991–92 failed to locate the species and the sudden appearance is thought to be linked to the introduction of apple snails Pomacea (the kite’s main food) into the area between 1986 and 1988. Source: Toucan 21(3): 8–9, 1995.

Radio tracking helping Harpy Eagles In 1992 the Harpy Eagle field programme started attaching radio transmitters to fledg­ Scarlet Macaw Ara m aca o (Charles Gambill) ling Harpy Eagles Harpia harpyja in Venezuela and Panama to learn more about the disper­ Orange-breasted Falcon census in sal of the young birds and the ecology of the Central America species in general. The fledgling birds are Aerial and ground surveys of selected areas ringed (banded) and released after being fit­ in Belize and Guatemala in 1994, by the Per­ ted with the transmitters. With assistance egrine Fund’s “Maya Project” and Lighthawk, from NASA, eight birds have been tracked in discovered four Orange-breasted Falcon Falco this way. Results so far indicate that young deiroleucus nests. These finds bring to 15 the birds remain at or near the nest site for over total number of known eyries in Belize and two years after fledging. A captive breeding Guatemala, making this the largest docu­ programme has also been established at the mented population of this rare and World Center for Birds of Prey with the long little-known falcon. term aim of reintroducing captive-bred birds Source: Peregrine Fund Annual Report, to areas where the species has been extirpated 1994. but where suitable habitat remains. Source: Peregrine Fund Annual Report, Crested Eagle nest discovered in 1994. Guatem ala In October 1994 biologists from the Maya More Andean Condors released in Project (see above) announced that a Crested Venezuela Eagle Morphnus guianensis nest had been Five more Andean Condors Vultur gryphus, found in northern Guatemala by a local reared at San Francisco Zoo and San Diego farmer. It is only the second ever Crested Ea­ Wild Animal Park, have been released in the gle nest to be found (the first was in Brazil) Sierra de la Culata National Park in Mérida,

9 C O TIN G A 4 Neotropical News New cloud-forest reserve in north-west Ecuador A new reserve covering 1400 ha has been cre­ ated near Ibarra in north-west Ecuador. Called Cerro Golondrinas, it is situated along a tribu­ tary of the Río Mira and is run by FUNDEAL (Foundation for Alternative Development), a non-government organisation. Two good trails offer accessible birding in the reserve and an old farm building has been converted into a visitor’s lodge to provide accommodation. The reserve covers páramo, temperate and sub­ tropical forest, and horses can be hired from the local villages to provide a novel means of transport in the area. FUNDEAL also organ­ Andean Condors in the Sierra de la Culata National Park ise five-day treks through the area, from the (David Wege) páramo at 4100 m down to the village of Gallupe at 900 m, and covering all the major Venezuela. This brings the total number of habitats. condors released in the past six years to 39, The forests of western Ecuador are one of 34 of which are known to survive. Of related the most threatened ecosystems in the Neo­ interest, in January 1994, after several birds tropical region, and the creation of this reserve (all juveniles) had been released, an adult is a vital step in the conservation of what is male was seen in the area, with an adult fe­ left of them. The Cerro Golondrinas area is male seen there in January 1995. This raises situated within both the north Andean and the the possibility that this magnificent raptor Chocó Endemic Bird Areas and contains may not have been completely extirpated in species such as Red-ruffed Fruitcrow Pyro- Venezuela after all (recent observations of con­ derus scutatus, Toucan Barbet Semnornis dors have also been reported from the nearby ramphastinus, Plate-billed Mountain-toucan Sierra de Perijá). Andigena laminirostris and the globally threat­ Source: Pan American News 10(2): 4, 1995 ened Yellow-eared Parrot Ognorhynchus & World Birdwatch 16(3): 5, 1994. icterotis. Visiting birders who include this re­ serve on their itinerary will not only get the Globally threatened parrot on the increase chance to see some of Ecuador’s most spec­ Numbers of the globally threatened Yellow­ tacular birds in a comparatively unknown part shouldered Amazon Amazona barbadensis on of the country, but will also be supporting a Margarita Island increased from 700 birds in vitally important conservation venture and 1989 to 1580 in 1994, according to the pri­ helping to support the local economy. vate Venezuelan conservation organisation For more information contact: Piet Sabbe, PROVITA. This increase, of more than 100% FUNDEAL Apartado Postal 1786, Suc 17-21, in five years, represents a significant recov­ Quito, Ecuador. ery. Unfortunately, PROVITA also reported Source: Paul Greenfield in litt. 1993 & Jan that numbers of the Margarita Island race of Wendeby in litt. 1994. Blue-crowned Conure Aratinga acuticaudata neoxena, which numbered only 180 individu­ Last wild Spix’s Macaw gets mate als in 1991, are still decreasing because of In March 1994 a female Spix’s Macaw human pressure and environmental degrada­ Cyanopsitta spixii was released from captivity tion. in the hope that it would join the last remain­ Anyone wishing for more information ing wild bird (a male!) in Brazil. The female should contact PROVITA, Programas Islas del chosen was the last adult bird known to have Caribe, Apartado Postal 47552, Caracas 1014- been taken from the wild and seems to have A, Venezuela. Fax: 576 28 28. re-adapted well to its freedom. Better still, a Source: Pan American News 10(2): 4, 1995. few months later she did indeed team up with the male and a strong pair-bond has been

10 C O T IN G A 4 Neotropical News formed with the birds spending virtually all indicated that the island is indeed of signifi­ their time together. The female Blue-winged cant ecological interest and conservation Macaw Ara maracana, with which the male value. The group, assisted by military person­ Spix’s had previously been pursuing a less nel, saw a total of 38 bird species, with than fruitful relationship, still accompanies breeding confirmed for 24 of them (and the pair during the day but does not roost with strongly suspected for a further five). Breed­ them. Hopes are now high that the pair will ing species included good numbers of soon breed and they are being guarded round- Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus, the-clock with every aspect of their behaviour six small colonies of Rock Shag Phalacrocorax noted. The release is part of the ongoing pro­ magellanicus, and a colony of 75 King Shags gramme to save Spix’s Macaw by an Phalacrocorax albiventer, but of special signifi­ International Committee headed by IBAMA, cance were large numbers of both Blackish the Brazilian wildlife authority. Cinclodes Cinclodes antarcticus and the glo­ Source: International Committee for the bally threatened Cobb’s Wren Troglodytes cobbi. recovery of Spix’s Macaw and Birdlife In­ The presence of these two songbirds in such ternational. good numbers seems to confirm that the is­ land is free from introduced predators, Waterways warning for Brazil particularly rats. In addition to the birds, the The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has surveyors found a small colony of southern warned that a 3442-km waterway, designed sea-lions, several elephant seals (but no adult to cross the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil and males) and 66 species of plant, including sev­ Paraguay to link the rivers Paraguay and eral uncommon species endemic to the Paraná will have a devastating effect on the Falklands. environment and is economically unsound. Source: The Warrah 7: 8–9, 1995. The WWF report Hidrovia Paraguay–Paraná: who pays the bill? which analysed the project, has stated that it is totally unfeasible and will be very costly in both social and economic terms. Supporters of the project claim it will allow farmers and businessmen in the interi­ ors of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia to export their products more ef­ fectively. Apart from the huge costs of construction, maintenance and operation, it is estimated that in the first five years of operation, the Pantanal wetlands (the world’s largest wet­ land) will lose 17 million m3 of water; enough fresh water to meet the needs of nearly 155 million people (approximately the population of Brazil). This loss will obviously have a dis­ astrous effect on local ecosystems and will also M agellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus cause climatic changes in the region, which (Charles Gambill) contains about 150 000 known species of plants and animals. An English summary of the report is available; for this and for more information contact Paula Lyra at +55 61 248 2899 or Javier Arreaza at +41 22 364 9575. Source: People & The Planet 4(2), 1995.

First survey of Motley Island completed A brief ecological survey of Motley Island, re­ cently acquired as a nature reserve by Falklands Conservation (see Cotinga 3: 10) has

11 COTINGA 5 Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN on a regular basis, to monitor the Kirtland’s Warblers still populations of the two locally increasing endangered storks and the other The population of the endangered waterbird species in this important Kirtland’s Warbler Dendroica wetland. kirtlandii, which breeds in • Specialist Group on Storks, Michigan, U.S.A., and winters in Ibises and Spoonbills Newslet­ the Bahamas, is still recovering ter 7(1/2), 1995. well from the recent low of 167 singing males in 1987. In June GUATEMALA 1995 a record 765 singing males Crested Eagle update were recorded, 132 more than the The finders of the Crested Eagle previous year. Also in 1995, the Morphnus guianensis nest in number of nesting birds using the Guatemala in 1994 (see Cotinga 4: specially planted and managed 9) discovered another nest of the Jack Pine plantations increased species in Tikal National Park dramatically to 57%. during May 1995. This nest — • Endangered Species Bulletin Jabiru Jabiru mycteria (D. Beadle) contained a single chick which had 20(4): 21, 1995. hatched earlier in the month. breeding range). The largest Studies showed that the eagle’s number of adult Jabirus recorded diet during this nesting period during surveys in the Laguna de consisted of 65% mammals, 25% Términos area in 1989 and 1990 birds and 10% snakes; most of the was 16. This was similar to mammals identified were squirrels, numbers recorded by other opossums and porcupines. Small observers in Tabasco and radio transmitters have been Campeche in 1971–1987 (a count of attached to the (now fledged) 83 adults in 1978 was considered chick and the adult female to help exceptional and has not been study their home range and habitat repeated). The surveys in 1989 and use. 1990 suggest that numbers of • The Peregrine Fund Newsletter storks in this area, particularly of 25: 6, 1995. Kirtland’s Warbler Dendroica kirtlandii American Wood Storks, are on the (D. Beadle) decline. Four mixed-species colonies were found, containing MEXICO total counts of 3500 and 3000 Stork surveys in Mexico pairs, respectively, most of which The Jabiru Jabiru mycteria and were American Wood Storks. These the American Wood Stork Mycteria numbers show a considerable americana were both added to the decline from 1971–1979, when list of Mexican endangered species surveys by the Audubon Society in 1991. The Usumacinta and revealed a total of 10 000–15 000 Grijalva Deltas, in the states of pairs of storks in the area, Tabasco and Campeche, are including one colony which important wetland areas for these contained 8000 pairs of American two species and, within this area, Wood Stork (the largest colony Laguna de Términos in Campeche known in North and Central supports the most important America at the time). Laguna de breeding colonies (and is also the Crested Eagle Morphnus guianensis Términos is a huge wetland area (D. Beadle) northern limit of the Jabiru’s and thorough surveys are required

7 COTINGA 5 Neotropical News

Logging threat averted in cloud- parrots are shipped out each leading up the mountain from the forest reserve month. Trappers are paid G$3000 cave, at 1175–1210 m. The habitat Logging has long been a problem in for macaws, G$1000 for monkeys was humid montane forest, the the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere and between G$200 and G$1000 birds favouring areas where a Reserve in Guatemala, but 1,535 for parrots. Some of the macaws dense understorey had formed due ha in the core of the reserve now are then sold to overseas buyers for to breaks in the canopy. The birds’ has additional protection having as much as US$7000. behaviour was similar to that of been bought by the Defensores de • The Catholic Standard 3 the first pair, foraging 0.5–2.5 m off la Naturaleza (the Nature December 1995. the ground. JP was able to make Conservancy’s partner organisation tape-recordings of call notes and in Guatemala) for $170 000; the VENEZUELA part of the song of one bird. Similar money was raised through TNC’s More Grey-headed Warbler habitat at lower altitudes (below popular “Adopt an Acre” pro­ sightings on Cerro Negro 1175 m) on the southern slope gramme. Sierra de las Minas The endangered Grey-headed failed to produce additional contains 60% of Guatemala’s Warbler Basileuterus griseiceps is records, despite the use of tape- remaining cloud-forest, but this currently known to occur at only playback, and it seems probable has been reduced from its original two sites in north-eastern that the birds are restricted to 30 400 ha to just 1,00 ha. At least Venezuela. An article in Cotinga forest remnants above 1200 m on 885 species of mammals, reptiles (3: 35–39,1995) detailed all recent the mountain. and birds have been recorded in records, but information has now These sightings, especially of the area, the avifauna including come to light of sightings on Cerro seven birds in one small area, raise Resplendent Quetzal Pharoma- Negro which pre-date the earliest hopes that the total population of chrus mocinno and the globally sightings in that article by a year. B. griseiceps on Cerro Negro could threatened Horned Guan On 4 March 1992, Jan Pierson and be higher than previous estimates. Oreophasis derbianus and Golden­ Dave Stejskal saw a total of nine More surveys are required cheeked Warbler Dendroica B. griseiceps in two different areas however, and the Neotropical Bird chrysoparia. of Cerro Negro. One pair was seen Club would like to hear of • Nature Conservancy 45(6): 33, briefly on the eastern slope of the proposals for such fieldwork or of 1995. mountain at c. 1470 m. They were additional sightings. foraging by flitting from branch to • Jan E. Pierson in litt. 1995. branch and perch-gleaning, 1–2 m above the ground within rather ECUADOR dense understorey at the forest Observations from Chilla forest, edge. south-west Ecuador Three pairs and a single bird Between 3 July and 14 August were seen later in the same day on 1995, an expedition from the southern slope of the Manchester Metropolitan mountain, closer to the famous University, U.K., carried out a Cueva de los Guácharos (Oilbird preliminary survey of Chilla forest, Cave). They were found along a on the west slope of the Andes, El Golden-cheeked Warbler Dendroica 600 m section of the main trail Oro province. The forest is located chrysoparia (Jon Fjeldså) in a valley c. 3.5 km west of the town of Chilla, covers an area of 200–250 ha at an altitudinal range GUYANA of 2000 to 3000 m. The forest Wildlife exploitation resumes types within the valley are Following the reopening of the transitional subtropical to humid wildlife trade in Guyana after a montane cloud-forest, with closure of over two years, animal montane cloud-forest higher up. trappers in the interior of the Some areas of grassland and country are reportedly heavily regenerating forest are also exploiting the animal populations present. The species composition in that had started to recover during the forest is interesting, as the the two-year ban. From Santa local climate is directly influenced Rosa, which is just one of many by the Pacific, resulting in some shipping points in the north-west, tree species being found at un­ it is estimated that at least 12 Grey-headed Warbler Basileuterus griseiceps usually high altitudes. The main (D. Beadle) macaws, 100 monkeys and 150 threats to the forest are clearance

8 COTINGA 5 Neotropical News

reserve received little government attention and builders and squatters began claiming land; 25% of the wetland area is now in litigation, with ownership being contested by conservationists and residents / developers. There have been other problems on this reserve, including poaching and pollution (from bleach and detergents): the former is apparently now under control but the latter is still giving cause for concern. However, there is some good news. There is now the possibility of a formal agreement Bearded Guan Penelope barbota (Jon Fjeldså) between Peruvian and Florida’s Everglades National Park officials, for pasture and the subsequent The Huacarpay lakes are not which could provide training for grazing by cattle, although only included in any type of environ­ the reserve staff. Also, a decrease one family appears to work the mental protection, even though, in poaching has resulted in an valley at present. despite their small size (less then increase in numbers of some bird Hampered by lack of time, the 400 ha) they support a large species. The area is being regularly preliminary survey recorded few number of migratory and resident surveyed by Peruvian ornitholo­ bird species, but importantly a waterbirds, in quantities gists, which is helping to prove the flock of 28 globally threatened comparable to those recorded for area’s importance, and local Golden-plumed Parakeets larger Peruvian lakes (e.g. Junín, conservationists say that Leptosittaca branickii were Titicaca). Environmental alteration environmental education is helping regularly seen in the forest during has apparently already caused a to reduce the pressure from the the survey. Other birds recorded reduction in the presence of some local population. included notable species such as species. • National Audubon Society Bearded Guan Penelope barbata (a For further information, please Field Notes 49(2): 115, 1995. threatened species), Sickle-winged contact: Jorge Luis Hurtado or Guan Chamaepetes goudotii, Daniel Blanco, Asociación de BRAZIL Oilbird Steatornis caripensis, Conservación para la Selva Sur, Bad news for the Atlantic Scaly-naped Amazon Amazona Apartado Postal 1200, Cusco, Peru. Forest mercenaria, Red-billed Pionus Tel/fax: 51084 240911. The Atlantic Forests of Brazil once sordidus and White-capped P. • Pan American News 10(4): 4, covered 1 million km2 but today seniloides Parrots, and Grey­ 1995. only 5% remains, resulting in breasted Mountain-Toucan many of the numerous endemic Andigena hypoglauca. Two Urban reserve under threat birds and mammals being on the Spectacled Bears and a Tayra were The Pantonas de Villa nature verge of extinction. In the past few also seen. reserve, 19 km from downtown years, many parks and reserves • J. Walker and M. Jacobs in litt. Lima, is a 270 ha freshwater have been established in this area, 1995 marsh next to the Pacific Ocean, but there are still problems. In and provides a refuge for many July 1995 the new government of PERU bird species, both local residents São Paulo sacked half of the forest Lakes threatened and Nearctic-Neotropical guards of the important Fazenda The Huacarpay lakes near Cusco migrants. Species to be seen here Intervales reserve. The reason was are seriously threatened by a dam include Great Grebe Podiceps to save money, but most of the constructed to provide water to major, Puna Ibis Plegadis guards receive less than $200 a surrounding communities. This ridgwayi, Wren-like Rushbird month and play a vital role in the dam was built as part of the Phleocryptes melanops and Many- protection of the reserve. The Potable Water Master Plan without coloured Rush-Tyrant Tachuris government also increased the any environmental impact rubigastra. Although considered park from 380 km2 to 500 km2 as a assessment, the lack of which an important local nature reserve, demagogic act. The few remaining constitutes a crime under Peruvian the site may be under threat from guards are poorly equipped to cover law. development. During the 1980s the such a huge area. Just after the

9 COTINGA 5 Neotropical News

sackings, hundreds of palms were Seabird wreck illegally harvested for palm heart Between June and August 1994, a extraction; the fruits of the palm wreck of seabirds occurred on the Euterpe edulis are the main food east coast of Brazil. An average of source of birds such as toucans, 30 bodies were found per km, guans and cotingas. suggesting a total mortality in the The Fazenda Intervales is tens of thousands. Of 3489 birds managed by a competent examined, 2380 (68%) were the foundation, the Fundação North Atlantic race of Cory’s Florestal, which is promoting many Shearwater Calonectes diomedea important research projects in the borealis, 740 (21%) Great area, including a study of Shearwaters Puffinus gravis, 144 Muriquis, a long-term study of White-chinned Petrels Procellaria palm management, plant aequinoctialis, 110 Antarctic phenology and the ecology of many Prions Pachyptila desolata, 40 of the endangered birds. However, Lear’s Macaws Anodorhynchus leari Narrow-billed Prions P. belcheri, the foundation has also had half of (Lyn Wells) 31 Atlantic Petrels Pterodroma its staff sacked, and many incerta, 11 Manx Shearwaters environmental, educational and Puffinus puffinus and six large droughts or goats, and which thus ecotourism programmes have been Catharacta sp. skuas. About 10% supports an excellent population of stopped. of the birds were oiled, and over healthy palms of every age and size Every month, palm-heart 40% of the shearwater bodies class. This is of great importance, poachers invade the reserve and contained plastic. as the available evidence suggests the few guards cannot control the • Sea Swallow 44: 77–78, 1995. situation. National and interna­ that the first population is limited by a shortage of their main natural tional pressure is required to CHILE food, the endosperm of the licuri re-establish the protection of Ramsar site threatened palm Syagrus coronatus. Intervales. If you want to help, The only Chilean Ramsar site, the It was interviews with former please write to Fundação Florestal, Río Cruces Sanctuary, is threat­ bird trappers and smugglers that Av. Miguel Stefano 3900, 04301- ened by the planned construction led to the discovery of this second 903 São Paulo, SP., Brazil. Also, of a cellulose processing plant. The population. These interviews also letters to the governor of São Paulo Chilean company Cellulosa Arauco indicated that present-day trappers may pressure him to review the y Constitución has decided to build are aware of the existence of this dismissal of guards in the park: the processing plant only 15 km population. However, small Governador Mário Covas, Palácio from the sanctuary. The plant marijuana plantations are dos Bandeirantes, Av. Morumbi would take water from the Río rumoured to be hidden in the 4500, 05698-900 São Paulo, SP, Cruces for use in processing wildlife-rich dry valleys that the Brazil. cellulose and cooling machinery. population inhabits, and it is only • Mauro Galetti in litt. 1995, also This water would then be released the fear of being shot by the Oryx 29: 225–226, 1995. back into the Rio Cruces at marijuana growers that has so far elevated temperatures (30–32°C) kept the trappers away from the Lear’s Macaw: a second popula­ and would probably be carrying site. For this reason, all the tion confirmed chemicals used in the plant such as trappers consider the first In late 1994 a team of biologists chlorides, phosphates and population to be the only birds that from the World Parrot Trust, the pesticides as well as residual they can trap with relative Wildlife Conservation Society and organic matter. Also, the use of impunity. Reliable information the CETREL corporation 1.2 m3 of water could seriously indicates that over the past 2–3 repeatedly observed a flock of at reduce the flow of the river. years trappers have caught and least 20 Lear’s Macaws This area has been declared a sold to bird smugglers approxi­ Anodorhynchus leari in an area Nature Sanctuary and will soon be mately 20 of the 117 birds of the several hundred kilometres away incorporated into the National first, well-known population. from the only previously known System of Protected Wild Areas Interestingly, the team of biologists population of 117 birds. In June under the category of Nature has received as yet unconfirmed 1995, two members of this team Reserve. The site is of great reports about several other located the cliff that this second scientific value, with the popula­ isolated, widely scattered population uses for roosting and tion of waterbirds estimated at populations of this macaw. presumably nesting. This group of 20 000 individuals. One of the • PsittaScene 7(4) 1–3, 1995. 22 birds occurs in an area without principal concerns is that even if

10 COTINGA 5 Taxonomic Round-up an environmental impact brachypterus. The Sound was also assessment is undertaken (which found to be an important feeding is only voluntary under Chilean area for thousands of shorebirds. law), it will be too superficial and Sample work conducted at the will be conducted in the wet same time indicated a similar season, thus not taking into wealth of invertebrate and plant account the extremes of dry season species. fluvial fluctuation. At present, this important site For further information, please remains relatively unspoilt, but contact: María Isabel Manzur, with the Sound used on a regular CODEFF, Casilla 3675, Santiago, basis by shipping, there is a Chile. Fax: 56 2 6968562; or Laura constant risk of a serious disaster Rodríguez, CODEFF-Valdivia, occurring from fuel-oil spillage. Casilla 191, Valdivia, Chile. The enclosed and sheltered nature • Pan American News 10(4): 3–4, of the Sound means that even a 1995. Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus small spill could have serious (Charles Gambill) consequences, with operational FALKLAND ISLANDS discharges already resulting in Survey of Berkeley Sound diversity. Over 70% of all oiled penguins and seabirds. An ecological survey of Berkeley Falklands breeding bird species • The Warrah 8: 4 , 1995. Sound in the Falkland Islands were recorded, including 8,000 during the austral summer of 1994/ pairs of penguin, 2500 pairs of 95 has confirmed the area to be of shag and 289 pairs of Falkland great importance for biological Steamerduck Tachyeres

11 COTINGA 6

Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN total amount of land protected to estímate was 100 pairs (Cotinga More reserves for the 3056 acres (4.7% of the total land 4: 8). The most recent estimate Cayman Islands area). Approximately half of this was obtained by banding The Department of the Environ­ total is comprised of the (ringing) ducks visiting the farm ment and the National Trust of the Environmental Zone Mangroves of Mr. Willie Ebanks at Malportas Cayman Islands are cooperating to on the shores of Grand Cayman’s Pond by Fiona O’Brien, with the safeguard areas of natural Little Sound. help of Willie and his son Jim. terrestrial and wetland habitat in • El Pitirre 9(1): 8, 1996 and Radio transmitters were attached the islands. The human population National Trust for the Cayman to six birds, which have indicated of the islands has increased from Islands Annual Report: 23–27, that the birds also rely heavily on 18 000 in 1984 to an estimated 1995 the Central Mangrove Wetland, 33 000 in 1995 and, as a result, probably for breeding as well as natural habitats are under Cuban Parrot shows increase feeding. increasing threat. The Trust has on Cayman Islands • National Trust for the Cayman therefore directed its efforts to A spring 1995 survey indicates that Islands Annual Report: 37, acquiring and protecting areas of the Cayman population of Cuban 1995 pristine terrestrial and wetland Parrot Amazona leucocephala habitats. Areas recently acquired caymanensis has risen from 1500 include 240 acres of dry limestone birds in 1992 to 1900. Factors woodland in central Grand contributing to the increase may Cayman. Known as the Mastic include its removal from the Game Reserve, it provides breeding Bird list in 1990, increased nest habitat for all the island’s site availability due to cavity endemic birds. Further areas of formation in trees damaged by this habitat will be bought as Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and funds allow and owners are high breeding success resulting prepared to sell. An historic right from favourable rainfall patterns of way has been re-opened as a leading to abundant fruiting of trail through the reserve, which wild trees. However, the woodland is increasing the ecotourism habitat this bird relies on is still potential as well as providing being destroyed and they are very young people with the opportu­ unpopular with farmers as they W est Indian W histling-Duck Dendrocygna nity to learn about the natural damage fruit crops; they are also a r b o r e a (Jon F je ld så) *2 history of their island. The Trust still illegally taken from the wild has also acquired 135 acres of as pets. The Trust will therefore Crown property in the Booby Pond continue to monitor the parrot First record of “Brewster’s and Rookery on Little Cayman, a populations, which are an indicator Warbler” in Hispaniola Ramsar wetland site which has of the overall ecological health of A “Brewster’s Warbler” (the hybrid one of the largest breeding colonies the islands. produced by Golden-winged of Red-footed Booby Sula sula in • National Trust for the Cayman Vermivora chrysoptera × Blue­ the Western Hemisphere and the Islands Annual Report: 36, winged Warbler V. pinus) was Cayman Islands’ only breeding 1995 observed in shade coffee planta­ colony of Magnificent Frigatebirds tions near Manabao, La Vega Fregata magnificens. West Indian Whistling-Ducks province, Dominican Republic on Nature reserves under Trust continue to increase 2 November 1994 by Steven C. ownership have increased by 19% The population of the West Indian Latta. This appears to be the first over the last year and now Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna record of this genotype in comprise 1214 acres including arborea on Grand Cayman is now Hispaniola. Both parent species woodlands and wetlands on all estimated to be at least 360 are rare in Hispaniola (with three islands. This brings the individuals. The previous several records of Blue-winged

7 COTINGA 6 Neotropical News

but only two of Golden-winged). Xiomara Galves, the festival American Free Trade Agreement The bird was searched for. but not organiser, hopes that future counts (NAFTA) inquiry. Originally it relocated, the following day. will expand onto the main island was thought that the birds had Warbler species commonly and possibly include other been killed by heavy-metal wintering in these coffee threatened species such as poisoning, as the reservoir is plantations include Cape May crocodiles and iguanas. downstream from tanneries and Dendroica tigrina, Black-throated • The ICF Bugle 22(1): 3 , 1996 other industries near León. Blue D. caerulescens, Black-and- However, the panel did find that white Mniotilta varia, American MEXICO exposure to heavy metals, Redstart Setophaga ruticilla and New parrot reserve in Mexico especially chromium, lead and Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla . In August 1995 purchase of the El mercury, played a role and could Rarer species include Tennessee Taray Sanctuary in north-eastern have contributed to the botulism. Warbler Vermivora peregrina, Mexico was completed. The They suggested that explosives be Northern Parula Parula reserve, near the city of Monterrey, detonated at the site to deter birds americana, Magnolia Dendroica includes 360 ha of montane pine from using the reservoir and that a magnolia, Black-throated Green D. forest habitat as well as the most feeding programme be established virens, Yellow-throated D. important known nesting cliff of at an alternative site. The National dominica, Prairie D. discolor and the threatened Maroon-fronted Audubon Society and two Mexican Palm Warblers D. palmarum, Parrot Rhynchopsitta terrisi, environmental organisations had Louisiana Waterthrush Seiurus which is endemic to the Sierra filed a request for an inquiry under motacilla and Common Madre Oriental in Mexico. This the terms of the NAFTA environ­ Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas. species has one of the smallest mental accord. • El Pitirre 9(1): 2 , 1996 ranges of any continental parrot, • Field Notes 49(3): 215, 1995 occurring only in a 200-mile (320- Cuba hosts first crane count km) stretch of these mountains, BELIZE More than 400 Cubans and a dozen with all 24 breeding colonies Britain backs logging in Belize Americans counted the endemic known occur within a 60 mile rainforest races of Sandhill Crane Grus (100 km) stretch. An estimated The Belize government, on the canadensis nesiotes and Cuban 100 pairs nested in El Taray advice of British officials, has Parrot Amazona leucocephala Sanctuary in 1995 — a quarter of approved large-scale logging palmarum from 105 watchpoints the nesting population (although operations in a remote primary across Isla de la Juventud, Cuba’s the total population was rainforest reserve near the second largest island, as part of estimated at 1000–2000 pairs in Guatemala border. The Columbia Cuba’s first “Love the Sandhill the 1970s). River Forest Reserve in the Toledo Crane and Cuban Parrot festival”. Acquisition of the reserve was District of southern Belize covers The count, on 17 December 1995, made possible by financial 103,000 acres and Atlantic produced 126 Sandhills and 1384 contributions from CONABIO (the Industries, a venture financed from Cuban Parrots. Both subspecies Mexican Committee on Hong Kong and Singapore, has are endemic to Cuba and are Biodiversity), the US State been granted a 20-year licence to considered endangered. Department, the US Fish and log an area of 10 000 hectares. The festival also promoted Wildlife Service and the Zoological Under its licence, Atlantic environmental education among Society of San Diego. Purchase of Industries should implement a local people and a celebration of the new reserve will facilitate “sustainable forest management the island’s natural heritage. habitat protection, education, plan” permitting it to extract only Crane calls and counting research and ecotourism. Title to marked trees, totalling no more instructions were broadcast over the land will be held by CONABIO, than 17 cubic metres of trees per local radio and television each but administration of the reserve hectare on a 40-year rotation. The night during the week prior to the will be the responsibility of the licence also requires it to consult count. Local hunters were Museo de las Aves. with the local Maya people and especially active and provided the • Psitta Scene 8(1): 8–9, 1996 avoid protected areas. However, majority of the manpower for the Atlantic Industries has already count, putting their identification Mexican waterfowl catastrophe apparently flouted the terms of the skills to the test. Luis Hernandez update licence, failing to tell local people Garcia, the president of Cuba’s Most of the 40 000 waterbirds that of its plans, cut trees untagged by hunting association, was positive died at a reservoir in central the Forestry Department, about this, explaining that it would Mexico in October-November 1994 bulldozing logging roads in help to make hunters more (see Cotinga 4: 8) died of botulism prohibited areas and failing to conservation-minded. according to the findings of a North mark stumps. It has also emerged

8 COTINGA 6 Neotropical News that the Minister for Natural breeding is hoped for. catchments, due to the threat to the Resources, Eduardo “Dito” Juan, • Peregrine Fund Annual Report: forests. They respected this and are signed Atlantic Industries’ 11, 1995 now seeing massive mining and concession despite the Forestry logging operations about to start by Department having filed 11 VENEZUELA foreign companies which will cause objections. As with all logging Amazonian forests under threat in far greater deforestation and water concessions in sensitive areas, this south-eastern Venezuela pollution and threaten to destroy one threatens the homes and Large areas of the pristine their lands and their livelihoods. livelihood of the local Maya people, rainforests of south-eastern The threat to the native people is who have hired lawyers to seek Venezuela are threatened by new the main concern voiced in the judicial reviews of the Belize government sponsored oil, mining report, but the effect on the wildlife government’s actions and the advice and logging concessions. These and the forest ecosystem, from the by Britain’s Overseas Development concessions, if they are all taken, will ranchers and other settlers who Administration that the rainforest have a devastating effect on the move in along the access roads, as was suitable for logging. enormous forested regions of Amazonas well as from the direct results of A survey of the Columbia River and Bolívar states, as well as on the logging and mining, are only too Forest Reserve by Conservation native people dependent on them. apparent. The major concern is that International estimated that it These findings are presented in a this pristine area could witness the contains at least 1500 plant new report by Survival International same huge-scale destruction which species, 10 species of frog and the World Rainforest Movement, occurred in Brazil in the 1980s - a (including three new to Belize and in which the Venezuelan government fate which most people previously one new to science), 29 different has been charged with “serious thought this unique area would be mammals and 224 bird species. violations” of the International spared. They recommended establishing a Labour Office’s Convention on Tribal • BBC Wildlife 14(1): 59, January national park in the region. and Indigenous Populations, which 1996 • BBC Wildlife: 14(4), 1996 was officially incorporated into Venezuelan national law in 1983. Breeding Greater Flamingos in COLOMBIA There are 315 000 native people in Venezuela More on the Andean Condor Venezuela but only 1% of native A Greater Flamingo Phoeni- reintroduction scheme communities possess legally binding copterus ruber colony was The reintroduction of Andean land titles; this recent avalanche of discovered at the Ciénaga de Los Condors Vultur gryphus in land concessions apparently ignores Olivitos in the Maracaibo Basin in northern South America continues. even these. Zulia state, western Venezuela, in This year the Peregrine Fund and For example, in Estado Bolívar 1987. Breeding was also confirmed its partners plan to release 4–6 around 60 foreign mining companies, in 1988 and 1989. The highest birds at a new site in the Parque including the Canadian-owned numbers were in 1987 with 4015 Nacional Los Nevados in the Yellowback Resources and Solomon nests (about 8000 adult birds) Department of Caldas, Colombia. Resources, have been granted containing a total of 3000+ pulli. Last year saw the first confirmed concessions, which in many cases A total of 5000+ birds is estimated breeding effort by reintroduced encroach on native lands and to have fledged from the colony birds when a pair laid an egg at a supposedly protected forests. This is over the three years. site in the Andes near Bogotá, a double blow to local people because Greater Flamingos have Colombia. This year several more they had previously been denied declined throughout the Caribbean of the released birds will reach permission to cany out small-scale area and this is an important sexual maturity and further mining to protect headwater discovery. Phelps and Phelps Jr. knew of only one Greater Flamingo colony in Venezuela: on La Orchila Island where a colony in 1952 contained 50 nests, all of which were abandoned due to human disturbance. This is the first record of breeding in Venezuela since 1952 and the first mainland colony to be discovered. • Colonial Waterbirds 17(1): 28– 34, 1994

Andean Condor Vultur gryphus (Dave Beadle)

9 COTINGA 6 Neotropical News

threat to the species. occurred close inshore, involving The survey was carried a different set of species, but out between 1–14 Waved Albatrosses were not September 1995 and associated with these. involved dawn-to-dusk Waved Albatrosses were also watches on nine full days observed scavenging in other and casual observations on situations. On one occasion several the other days. It was albatrosses, plus frigatebirds and found that flocks of Waved storm-petrels, were attracted to Albatrosses frequently the remains of an attack by seven associated with feeding Killer Whales Orcinus orca on a groups of Common school of Common Dolphins. On Dolphins Delphinus another, three albatrosses were delphis, Blue-footed seen feeding on the remains of a Harpy Eagle Harpia harpyja (Dave Beadle) Boobies Sula nebouxii, large squid Angistrocheirus Masked Boobies S. lesevri. Harpy Eagle Conservation dactylatra, Magnificent During the entire survey no Program Frigatebirds Fregata magnificens, albatrosses were seen feeding on In 1995 the Harpy Eagle White-vented Storm Petrels live prey. Thus (and contra to most Conservation Program discovered Oceanites gracilis, Wedge-rumped of the literature) it seems that seven new nesting sites in Storm Petrels Oceanodroma scavenging may be an important Venezuela, bringing the national tethys and Galápagos Sea Lions feeding strategy for Waved total found during their surveys to Zalophus californianus which Albatrosses at certain times of the an impressive 18. Three of the regularly form in the vicinity of year. This means that the structure seven contained chicks by the year the islands. Large concentrations of feeding groups and the well­ end and another had an almost of albatrosses were observed on being of all their components (fish, fully grown fledgling still accepting many occasions, always with dolphins, boobies and frigatebirds) food from its parents. Sadly, they feeding groups, with the largest is perhaps of importance to the also report that one of the juveniles flock recorded during the survey feeding success of the albatrosses. radio-tagged 27 months previously being 389. However, taking the There is a potential threat in was shot by a poacher. Their survey as a whole, 1–3 together that fishermen, as well as detailed study of nesting Harpy was a more typical sighting. dolphins and seabirds, are also Eagles Harpia harpyja in The feeding groups always attracted to schools of tuna. Until Venezuela continues. occurred offshore in deep water very recently the fishing fleet in • Peregrine Fund Annual Report: and seemed to follow a fixed the area has been slow, local and 15, 1995 pattern. The dolphins would locate primitive in its methods. However, the food with Blue-footed Boobies there is enormous pressure to ECUADOR following overhead. Once the food allow local fishermen to increase Flocking and feeding behaviour was accessible to the boobies, they the tonnage of their fleet. The fleet of Waved Albatross poses a would begin to dive on it. is also modernising and one of the potential threat Frigatebirds, which had been “new” techniques to be introduced The world population of Waved keeping an eye on the proceedings, is the use of longlines for the Albatrosses Diomede a irrorata was would descend to mob the boobies, valuable Yellow Fin Tuna Thunnus estimated at about 15 000 pairs in forcing them to disgorge their fish. albacares and other pelagic fish in 19941, of which 99% breed on However, the albatrosses which the waters surrounding the Española Island in the Galápagos. were attracted by the activity were Galápagos. The effects of Using satellite transmitters, it has observed on dozens of occasions to longlining on albatrosses in other been demonstrated that the birds move in and grab the disgorged parts of the world has been forage over the continental shelf of food. On one occasion up to four catastrophic (the albatrosses Peru2. However, a survey by Godfrey albatrosses were seen round one scavenge from the baited hooks as Merlen, David Parer and Elizabeth “downed” booby. The albatrosses they enter the water — with Parer-Cook in 1995 indicates that appeared to rely on the frigatebirds disastrous results) and there is a scavenging near the Galápagos to initiate the attack but would very real threat that the same breeding grounds may constitute an then try and seize the disgorged thing may now occur around the important part of their feeding food. Storm petrels fluttered Galápagos; especially given that behaviour and as this brings them amongst these birds and picked up Waved Albatrosses are not just into close contact with local tuna whatever morsels were left over. scavengers, but are also heavily fishermen could pose a potential Similar feeding groups also reliant on squid3, a popular bait

10 COTINGA 6 Neotropical News for longlining. One way of courting and one pair was observed nests observed contained eggs or diminishing such a threat is to copulating. young. This is the most recent prohibit longlining and other The total was slightly lower breeding record of Scarlet Ibis on the potentially dangerous fishing than the 873 counted in 1994 but north coast of Brazil. techniques in the waters within significantly higher than the 398 • Ararajuba 3: 67–68, 1995 the Marine Resource Reserve (15 counted during the 1982/83 El nautical miles seaward from the Niño. The relatively high total and ARGENTINA perimeter of the archipelago). high percentage of juveniles Pesticides in Argentina affecting References suggest the population is slowly populations of Swainson’s Hawks 1. Anderson, D. (1995) Census of recovering from the 1982/83 El An extremely potent organophos- Waved Albatross, 1994: Final Niño, when it declined by an phate pesticide has been linked to report to the Charles Darwin estimated 77%. However the data the death of up to 20 000 Swainson’s Research Station, June 19 indicate that the population is still Hawks Buteo swainsonii in La 1995. Unpublished report, 50% below that prior to 1982. Pampa region of Argentina. 700 dead Charles Darwin Research The number of goats has Swainson’s Hawks were found in Station. increased recently in western 1995. This led to a more detailed 2. Anderson, D. (1995) Ecological Isabela, where penguins are survey this year, led by Brian and population dynamics of abundant, and their nesting Woodbridge of the US Forest Service, Waved Albatross: Preliminary habitat may be being damaged as a result of which 3900 dead report to the Charles Darwin through continuous soil erosion by Swainson’s Hawks were found in Research Station, June 23 these animals. An eradication January 1996. This followed the 1995. Unpublished report, programme is being planned to spraying of fields in the area with Charles Darwin Research remove the goats. There is also monocrotophos for grasshopper Station. concern that massive extraction of control. 2729 of these were found at 3. Harris, M.P. (1973) The biology sea cucumbers in the area may a single site following a pesticide of the Waved Albatross affect other trophic levels in the application. These hawks, which Diomedea irrorata of Hood Galápagos, as well as penguins. breed in northern North America, Island, Galapagos. Ibis 115: • Penguin Conservation 9(1): 2–4, spend their austral summers in 483–510. 1996 Argentina, where they feed primarily • Godfrey Merlen, Puerto Ayora, on grasshoppers. They are subject to Galápagos. Texaco sued for damage to direct mortality through skin contact Ecuadorian rainforest with the pesticide, as well as Galápagos Penguin census: 1995 A group of native Ecuadorians has secondary poisoning through the results filed a £1 million lawsuit against consumption of contaminated The 15th census of Galápagos Texaco in the New York courts. The insects. Penguins Spheniscus mendiculus oil company is accused of “large- In recent years, much of the was carried out on 22–23 August scale disposal of inadequately winter (austral summer) habitat of and 27 September–3 October 1995 treated hazardous wastes and Swainson’s Hawk has been changed by the Charles Darwin Research destruction of tropical rainforest”. from range-based livestock to Station and the Galápagos The Rainforest Action Network intensive crop production using National Parks Service. The census estimates that Texaco may have pesticides. There are fears that other produced a total of 844 penguins, of spilled 17 million gallons of crude insectivorous birds in the region are which 402 (47.6%) were adults, 145 oil in the Amazonian region of suffering the same fate as the (17.2%) juveniles and 297 (32.5%) Ecuador, which is more than half Swainson’s Hawks. Monocrotophos is of indeterminate age. 538 (63.7%) as much again as in the Exxon highly toxic to birds and banned in were on Isabela (with most of these Valdez disaster of 1989. the US and Canada. Despite this, it on the western side), 271 (32.1%) • BBC Wildlife 14(1): 55, 1996 is in widespread use worldwide and on Fernandina, and just 35 (4.1%) is manufactured by many companies on other islands. The percentage of BRAZIL under varying brand names, juveniles were 16.2% for Isabela, Scarlet Ibis colony discovered in including Nuvacron by Ciba-Geigy of 17.3% for Fernandina and 22.9% Brazil Basel, Switzerland, one of the largest for the other islands. The largest In April 1991, during shorebird producers. This and many other flock was 21 in south-western research, a breeding colony of about incidents illustrates the pressing Isabela. Two active nests were 2500 Scarlet Ibises Eudocimus need to establish a global protocol found, one with a nearly fledged ruber was found on Cajual Island, dealing with persistent and chick and one with two downy Maranhão, Brazil. The nests were 8– bioaccumulative chemicals. young. Twelve birds were in active 12 m high in young mangroves • Gerald W. Winegrad, American moult, two pairs were seen (mainly ofAvicennia sp.). All the Bird Conservancy

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Neotropical News

NORTH AMERICA taxon. In November 1996, just 15 convictions, including that of Kirtland’s W arbler decrease, individuals remained on the Silva’s mother, Gila Daoud. y e t s p r e a d island off the coast of California, • TRAFFIC 15 (4), 1996; World A survey in 1996 revealed 692 USA. The shrike’s decline is due Birdwatch 19(1), 1997 singing male Kirtland’s Warblers to habitat destruction by now- Dendroica kirtlandii in Michigan, eradicated goats and by fires USA, a decline of 9% from the induced by shells exploding previous year’s total of 765. The during US Navy target practice. decline is thought to be due to The American Bird Conservancy large tracts of habitat becoming threatened to sue the US Navy too mature to be suitable for the under the Endangered Species warblers. However, new stands Act. They reached an agreement which have either been planted whereby the Navy would cull cats by researchers or created by and rats, reduce bombardment of controlled fires are approaching shrike habitats and control the Bermuda Petrel Pterodroma cahow the right age and are expected to spread of fires. Concurrently, 40 (Jon Fjeldså) be colonised in a few years. juveniles from a San Diego Zoo Moreover, at least 14 singing captive breeding programme Berm uda Petrel breeding males were found in four counties should be released during 1997. s u c c e s s on the Upper Peninsula of • World Birdwatch 19(1), 1997 Bermuda Petrels Pterodroma Michigan, apparently due to cahow enjoyed their best appropriate management of the Parrot sm uggler jailed breeding season for years in 1996. species’ jack-pine forests. In Tony Silva, a well-known writer The record population of 52 pairs recent decades, the breeding on the plight of endangered raised 26 juveniles, continuing range has been confined to nine parrots, has been jailed for nearly the increase noted since 1990. counties on the Lower Peninsula seven years for heading an illegal • World Birdwatch 19(1), 1997 of the state. The population of bird smuggling operation. Silva this endangered warbler thus was also fined $100 000 by the CARIBBEAN seems likely to increase again. Federal Court of Chicago, USA Puerto Rican Parrot • The Skimmer 4(6): 7 , 1996; and ordered to do 200 hours threatened by developm ent 5(2): 1, 1997 community service and three Puerto Rico’s Caribbean National years probation. This is one of the Forest, El Yunque, is under threat heaviest sentences ever imposed for a federal wildlife crime. Silva was found guilty on counts of smuggling birds (including Hyacinth Macaws Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) worth $1.3 m into the USA and related tax violations. It has been estimated that the defendant may have K irtla n d ’s W a rb le r Dendroica kirtlandii been responsible for the demise of (David Beadle) 5–10% of the world’s Hyacinth Macaws. Silva was arrested in Shrike silences guns 1995 following a three-year The endemic San Clemente investigation into international Island subspecies of Loggerhead parrot trade by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The investiga­ Shrike Lanius ludovicianus P uerto Rican P arrot Amazona vittata mearnsi is probably North tion has produced 37 other (Charles Gambill) America’s most endangered

6 COTINGA 7 Neotropical News from urban encroachment and indeed, throughout the species’ ered site in the Calabash Pond tourism. Various developments - range) are urgently required to area. One of the nests in the including hotels, roads, a golf make an accurate assessment of CTWS area was destroyed by course and a landfill site — have its true status. strong winds on 20 March, been built on a US government- • TWSG News 9: 10–11, 1996 resulting in the loss of both chicks. approved buffer zone and are now • Belize Audubon Society spreading towards the forest MEXICO Newsletter 28 (2–3): 10, 1996 boundary. Non-native predators Studies of the endangered such as cats and dogs have been Socorro M ockingbird introduced, and water consump­ The Socorro Mockingbird tion has also increased, drying up Mimodes graysoni, endemic to creeks within the forest. The 113 Socorro Island, has declined km2 forest, protected since 1903, dramatically this century, and is is the only remaining rainforest now considered Endangered. in the US national system and Surveys by Juan Martínez-Gómez supports a number of threatened and Robert Curry in 1993 and species such as the endangered 1994 produced a population Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona estimate of c. 350 individuals in vittata. 1994. Most birds were recorded at • Oryx 30(4): 246, 1996 a single high altitude site which covers less than 10% of the total island area. The study indicated

that habitat degradation by sheep Jabiru Jabiru mycteria (David Beadle) may be the main cause of the decline. The presence of young birds in both years implies that W ood Storks have a the species is breeding success­ good season fully. The sex ratio was found to The Wood Stork Mycteria be similar to that of other americana colony at Shipstern undisturbed mimid populations. Nature Reserve on Seaman’s The researchers used these two Caye contained c.800 birds in fact to refute the theory that cats 1996, with wardens being posted - through predation of incubating on a rotation basis to provide females and their young — have additional protection for the W est Indian Whistling-duck been a major cause of the decline. colony. Dendrocygna arborea (Jon Fjeldså) They also noted that Northern • Belize Audubon Society Mockingbirds Mimus polyglottos, Newsletter 28 (2–3): 10, 1996 M ore records o f W est Indian which have been present on the W histling-duck island since the 1970s, occur GUYANA On 22 April 1996, Guy Kirwan, mainly in the open areas grazed Rainforests threatened by Rob Williams and Chris by sheep and so are unlikely to logging concessions Bradshaw observed three West displace the endemic species. Guyana’s freeze on foreign Indian Whistling-ducks Further studies will assess the logging concessions, introduced in Dendrocygna arborea at Laguna conservation status of this single May 1995 for a period of three del Salodillo in north-west island endemic whose population years in order to develop a forest Dominican Republic. Local is clearly very small. management capacity, may be fisherman, Carlos Mari-Brilo • Bird Conservation Interna­ about to break. Guyana is now reported that several hundred tional 6: 271–283, 1996 introducing ‘exploratory licences’ whistling-ducks Dendrocygna which effectively allow logging. spp. regularly use the lake BELIZE Guyana attracts foreign loggers throughout the year. The area is Four Jabiru nests found because of its large pristine relatively remote and sparsely i n B e l i z e rainforest and cheap timber. populated, giving further hope A total of four Jabiru Jabiru According to a 1995 World Bank that this globally threatened mycteria nests were discovered in study, royalties, taxes and forest species may be more abundant Belize in 1996. Three were in the fees are only c.10% of those in than previously thought. Surveys Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Africa and Asia. Interested of all suitable waterbodies area with the other, which had companies include Solid Timbers throughout Hispaniola (and, three chicks, at a newly discov­ Sendirian Berhad of Malaysia

7 COTINGA 7 Neotropical News and Buchanan Forests Products … but goldm ining dam ages BOLIVIA of Canada. adjacent rainforest National park to double • Belize Audubon Society In the past three years, i n s i z e Newsletter 28 (2–3): 9, 1996 goldminers have flown more than The Noel Kempff Mercado 400 earth-moving machines into National Park in north-east ECUADOR Madre de Dios in southern Peru. Bolivia is to be doubled in size to Galápagos island threatened by The miners are now moving into give a total area of 8900 km2, goat dam age the Tambopata Reserved Zone making it the largest area ever A feral-goat population on Volcán (see above) and it has been protected through private Alcedo, Isabela, has grown to tens warned that the Madre de Dios initiative anywhere in the world. of thousands since the early area could suffer irreparable The park contains key habitat 1990s and is now causing serious damage within the next five transition zones which connect damage to vegetation. This is years. The huge front-loading the dry Gran Chaco to the threatening the endemic wildlife machines destroy all trees in Amazon basin and thus has an on the island, especially the giant their path as they move a 30- especially high biodiversity. tortoise Geochelone elephantopus. metre depth of subsoil. The earth Globally threatened birds include An eradication campaign was is placed on wooden sluices and Rufous-sided Pygmy-Tyrant started in 1995, and the washed with high-pressure hoses Euscarthmus rufomarginatus and vegetation and tortoise to separate silt and gold. Mercury Black-and-tawny Seedeater populations arc being monitored. is then added to attract the gold Sporophila nigrorufa. It is hoped that the goats will be particles prior to being burned • Oryx 30(4): 247, 1996 removed in the near future. off. This causes river and air • Oryx 30(4): 248, 1996 pollution as well as posing a risk to goldminers’ health. PERU Indigenous people, mainly New national park Harakmbut Indians, are losing declared... their lands to the miners and In July 1996, the Peruvian have also suffered assaults and government designated the death threats from miners and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. police. The park covers 325 000 ha from In addition, Mobil have the Río Tambopata east to the recently been granted permis­ sion to carry out oil and gas Rufous-sided Pygmy-Tyrant Euscarthmus Bolivian border and incorporates rufomarginatus (Jon Fjeldså) the Río Heath National Sanctu­ exploration in forests legally ary, the only area of tropical owned by the tribe (see above). Two giant national parks grassland in Peru. In 1995 the One glimmer of hope is that a d e c l a r e d Bolivian government designated new, less detrimental goldmining The Bolivian government has the adjacent Alto Madidi National technique has recently been recently declared two giant Park, which covers 1.7 million ha developed, which can recover 95% national parks. Firstly, Alto (see Bolivia below). These two of the mercury and increases gold Madidi, on the Peruvian border parks create one of the largest yields by up to 40%. This (see above) covers 1.7 million ha contiguous protected areas of hopefully provides a strong of montane and lowland rainforest in the world. The incentive for miners to switch rainforest, glaciers and natural Tambopata Reserve Society are methods. savanna. Because of this large now hoping to cooperate with Survival International are range of altitudes and habitats, local organisations to establish a campaigning to protect the lands the park probably has the highest management and research of the indigenous people in this biodiversity (including the programme for Bahuaja-Sonene. region of Peru. If you would like highest diversity of bird species) The park lies just east of an area to help them, write to: Survival of any protected area in the allocated to Mobil for oil and gas International, 11–15 Emerald world. At least 1200 bird species exploration. It had been hoped to Street, London WC1N 3QL, UK. have been recorded in the area have this area included in the For more information on the along with similarly high park, and there is now clearly an Tambopata Reserve and Mobil numbers of mammals, reptiles, onus on Mobil to act with activities, send an SAE to TReeS, amphibians, fishes, invertebrates sensitivity towards the environ­ 64 Belsize Park, London NW3 and plants. ment during their exploration. 4EH. UK. The second new park is Kaa- • Tambopata Reserve Society • BBC Wildlife 14(7): 59, 1996 iya del Gran Chaco in the Newsletter 34, 1996 south-east, which covers 3.5

8 COTINGA 7 Neotropical News

million ha of the last, great BRAZIL Rio de Janeiro A ntw ren expanse of the Chaco dry forest. Kinglet C alyptura survives in rediscovered This park is thought to contain south-east Brazil! The Rio de Janeiro Antwren possibly the highest diversity of The possibility that the Kinglet Myrmotherula fluminensis has terrestrial mammals in Latin Calyptura Calyptura cristata was been rediscovered in south-east America, including the Chacoan extinct can at last be dismissed. Brazil. Previously known from a Peccary Catagonus wagneri, Ending a period of more than one single male specimen collected in which was known only from sub- hundred years without a 1982 near Rio de Janeiro, it was fossil remains until 1974. Local confirmed record of this rediscovered by two English indigenous people in both parks enigmatic species (see Collar et ornithologists, Stephen Knapp were consulted during the al. 1992, Threatened birds of the and Andrew Foster, in the Serra designation process and will help Americas) the Brazilian dos Orgãos foothills, 60 km north­ administer management plans. ornithologist Ricardo Parrini east of Rio de Janeiro. Several The parks represent a welcome rediscovered it on 27 October individuals have been observed in new wave of conservation 1996, just 60 km from Rio de the same place up to March 1997. initiative in Bolivia, instigated by Janeiro city. On that morning, The first field observations Alejandro Sanchez de Lozada, while watching birds in the have already yielded much new head of Bolivia’s National forested foothills of the Serra dos data on the Rio de Janeiro Biodiversity Directorate. Orgãos, Parrini located two birds, Antwren: the as yet undescribed • Notes from the Field, Summer probably a pair, of a remarkably female plumage has been 1996 and Oryx 30(2): 99, 1996 tiny crested bird that could only observed, contact calls tape- be Kinglet Calyptura. José recorded and some basic life- Help for Blue-throated Macaws Fernando Pacheco was immedi­ history information collected. It is Efforts to reduce trade and ately informed, who mobilised hoped that a complete census and encourage community-based Luiz Pedreira Gonzaga and a ecological study of the species can conservation are helping Blue- team of other ornithologists and be attempted in the near future. throated Macaws Ara The finders are currently glaucogularis in eastern Bolivia. preparing the results of Surveys in 1996 at a known their research as a formal stronghold had revealed a 50% paper to be submitted decline on the previous year’s shortly. total of 25 birds in a 20-km2 area. The rediscovery site, the Serra do In response, the team — from Mar Ecological Reserve, harbours a Armonía — have initiated an number of other threatened and environmental education near-threatened fauna, including programme in the surrounding Elegant Mourner Laniisoma area. Armonía now have the elegans, and the highly threatened permission of the regional Woolly Spider Monkey Brachyteles

Federation of Cattle Ranchers to Kinglet Calyptura Calyptura cristata arachnoides. With primary and conduct fieldwork on all private (Jon Fjeldså) secondary habitats occurring from properties and are brokering an 35–2300 m, the Serra do Mar agreement whereby landowners friends from the Federal Ecological Reserve forms a vital assume responsibility for the University of Rio de Janeiro and link in a montane forest corridor conservation of the macaws and the local Birdwatchers’ Club who between Parque Nacional da Serra their habitat. This follows the observed the birds again in dos Orgãos and Reserva Ecológica disappearance of six A. following days at the same place. de Macae de Cima. glaucogularis (together with two A note on the observations made A management plan for the Hyacinth Macaws Anodorhynchus by Parrini and this team is due in Serra do Mar Ecological Reserve hyacinthinus and seven Red- a future issue of Cotinga. is currently being produced which fronted Macaws Ara rubrogenys) Gonzaga and Pacheco are now will encapsulate the primary from Santa Cruz Zoo. Following coordinating a follow-up survey to objectives of conservation, pressure by conservationists, the obtain additional data on research, education and Bolivian government has ordered ecological and behavioural community involvement. To assist an inquiry. The zoo director is aspects of the species, and will the funding of these primary liable to face prosecution if hopefully find it in other objectives, a small ecotourism unable to produce localities in the Serra do Mar. programme catering particularly a satisfactory explanation. • Luiz Pedreira Gonzaga in litt. for birders and natural history • World Birdwatch 19(1), 1997 1996 groups is to be located at the

9 COTINGA 7 Neotropical News

Threat to the Pantanal cornuta in a survey of a little- wetlands continues known lagoon complex in the The first phase of the Hidrovia, Vilama and Pululos area of the controversial industrial north-west Argentina. One waterway planned for the hundred and eighty active nests Paraguay and Paraná rivers, has were also discovered. This is a been approved by the govern­ highly significant count, given ments of Bolivia, Brazil, that the previous world popula­ Paraguay, Uruguay and Argen­ tion estimate was just 5000 tina, despite the fact that none of birds. The coots appear to be the promised public consultation strongly dependent on submerged Rio de Janeiro Antwren Myrmotherula has materialised. The scheme will vegetation, which has been badly fluminensis (David Beadle) cost $91 million and involves affected by a severe drought in straightening river bends and the region. Proposals are forest edge just 50 m above sea- dredging 22.5 million cubic underway to protect the lagoons. level and adjacent to primary metres of material from the river • TWSG News 9: 34–39, 1996 habitats. beds. This is likely to accelerate Subject to funding being made the flow of the two rivers and Swainson’s Haw k recovery available, this important and drain more than 200 000 km2 of An historic agreement between exciting new reserve is scheduled Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands. Brazil the American Bird Conservancy to open in 1998. Anyone has recently announced plans for and Ciba-Geigy, a major interested in finding out more a port in the Pantanal at pesticides manufacturer, has about the project Serra do Mar Descalvados, which is a likely curbed unintentional fatalities of Ecological Reserve should contact prelude to further development of Swainson’s Hawks in Argentina. Stephen Knapp, Yeomans the area. Up to 20 000 hawks, perhaps 5% Cottage, Mill Lane, Sidlesham, • BBC Wildlife 14 (7): 57, 1996 of the world population, had died West Sussex, PO20 7NA, UK. Tel. on their wintering grounds in the +44(0)1243 641014; fax. +44 Threats to Brazilian loggers La Pampas region following the (0)1243 641438. The Brazilian environment use of monocrotophos to kill • Stephen Knapp in litt. 1997 agency IBAMA is owed more than grasshoppers, the hawks’ main $422 million in unpaid fines by food item. Ciba-Geigy have New threats to Am azon logging companies and has a agreed to remove monocrotophos A new Brazilian law is threaten­ backlog of 123 000 cases for from the Argentine market and to ing land formerly preserved for breaches of environmental laws buy back stock held by farmers. indigenous peoples and accords held up in the courts. The They have supported a public greater powers to ranchers, President of IBAMA has brought education programme run in part loggers and miners exploiting the in 2000 lawyers to call in the by the Asociación Ornitológica del Amazon rainforest. More than fines and the army has made Plata. The Argentine government 500 official challenges have been 28 000 soldiers, 1000 boats and agreed to ban use of the pesticide filed against 56 native reserves 80 aircraft available for logistical on grasshoppers and alfalfa. Such under Decree 1775, which came support. efforts appear to have had into force in January 1996. • Oryx 30(2): 100, 1996 immediate benefit: no dead However, it has been estimated hawks have been found so far that the total number may be ARGENTINA during the winter of 1996–1997. closer to 2000, involving more Horned Coot stronghold • World Birdwatch 19(1), 1997 than 80 indigenous areas. Brazil’s d i s c o v e r e d Socialist Party has brought a case In October 1995, Sandra Caziani to the Supreme Court arguing and Enrique Derlindati counted that this decree contravenes the 8988 Horned Coots Fulica Brazilian constitution which guarantees native peoples the lands that they have always occupied. The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling on Brazil to revoke the decree. • Oryx 30(4): 247, 1996 Horned Coot Fulica cornuta (Jon Fjeldså)

10 COTINGA 8

Neotropical News

CANADA population of Greater Flamingo Puerto Rican Vireo in decline Black-capped Petrels on G reat Phoenicopterus ruber, have been The endemic Puerto Rican Vireo Lakes after Hurricane Fran declared a National Park. Vireo latimeri has been gradually During September 1996 about 50 Freshwater seeps in the area declining since 1973, according to Black-capped Petrels Pterodroma were being used for agriculture, studies at the Guánica Forest. It hasitata were blown into the and it is hoped that this is thought that the population Great Lakes area of Ontario, declaration will prevent further decrease is due to low nesting Canada, Most birds reached Lake encroachment. It is also intended success as a result of brood Erie, where 23 were found dead that the park will become the parasitism by the Shiny Cowbird and others seen alive. The birds nucleus of a new biosphere Molothrus bonariensis, a recent had been displaced by Hurricane reserve, protecting montane and immigrant to the forest. The vireo Fran, which hit the North cloud forest to the north and is not considered threatened, but Carolina coast on 5 September south of the lake. action should be taken to halt the and sent strong winds over the • Oryx 31(3): 175, 1997 decline while the species remains Appalachian mountains into fairly abundant. Pennsylvania and then over Lake Update on W est Indian • Wilson Bulletin 109(2): 195– Erie. A further 15 birds were W histling-Duck in 202, 1997 recorded in the USA, from North Dom inican Republic Carolina north to New York. This Evaluation of historical and represents the largest hurricane- available recent data indicates induced influx of this species into that the West Indian Whistling- North America and, considering duck Dendrocygna arborea still the small size of the only known occurs in six populations breeding population on (four of them coastal) in the Hispaniola (see Cotinga 6: 29), a lowlands of the Dominican significant percentage of the Republic. However, it is world population of this thought to be declining in most threatened seabird may have areas, principally due to been involved. degradation of its wetland W est Indian W histling-Ducks Dendrocygna • El Pitirre 10(1): 15–16, 1997 habitat. Effective conservation arborea (Lyn Wells) measures are being hampered by a lack of political support at both regional and national level. There G uiana Island threatened is also insufficient data on the by developm ent species’ distributional limits, The Antigua and Barbudan population density and ecology. government is backing a • El Pitirre 10(1): 2–10, 1997 Malaysian proposal for a huge tourist development on the Census of Cuban Parrot and ecologically important 162 ha Sandhill C rane on Isla de la Guiana Island. The island lies in Juventud, Cuba the middle of one of the largest A census of Cuban Parrot mangrove regions in the Lesser Black-capped Petrels Pterodroma hasitata Amazona leucocephala palmarum Antilles and supports sea-grass (Lyn Wells) and Sandhill Crane Grus beds, coral reefs, turtle nesting canadensis nesiotes in the beaches and the threatened West CARIBBEAN northern part of Isla de la Indian Whistling-duck New National Park in Juventud, Cuba, on 17 December Dendrocygna arborea. Dom inican Republic 1995 obtained counts of 1320 and • BBC Wildlife 15(5), 1997 Lago Enriquillo and its adjacent 115 birds respectively. wetlands, which hold a large • El Pitirre 10(1): 25, 1997

4 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News

Study of G renada Dove reveals recent decline A study of the critically endan­ gered Grenada Dove Leptotila wellsi indicates that the population has declined by 50% since 1987 and now numbers less than 70 birds in two small populations. In response, the Grenada government recently established the Mount Harman Estate, where three-quarters of the population occur in 480 ha of forest, as a national park. The Global Environmental Facility provided a grant of $200 000 to set up and maintain the park. In Eared Trogon Euptilotus neoxenus (Jon Fjeldså) May 1997, work began on a Trogon Euptilotus neoxenus and species recovery plan, to be montane pine forest in the Sierra Thick-billed Parrot Rhynchopsitta discussed further at a workshop Madre Occidental. On being pachyrhyncha, both of which are in Grenada in late 1997. informed that a logging road to globally threatened. Continuing • World Birdwatch 19(3): 4 ,1997 the flat forested summit of El work to ensure the long-term Carricito was under construction, protection of El Carricito is being Update on W hite-tailed the Ministry for the Environment funded by the National Fish & Sabrewing on Tobago acted speedily to halt the project. Wildlife Foundation, The threatened White-tailed The road would have enabled a the Biodiversity Support Sabrewing Campylopterus logging company to remove most Program, the Commission on ensipennis is restricted to north­ of the remaining pines, which Environmental Cooperation, eastern Venezuela and Tobago. In take 400 years to mature. El Conservation Food and Health 1963, Hurricane Flora drove the Carricito holds 95% of the Foundation, the Government of Tobago population to the verge of remaining montane forests of the Netherlands, Chicago extinction. It was rediscovered in north-western Mexico and has Zoological Society and the World 1974 and the population has important populations of Eared Parks Endowment. made a subsequent slow recovery. • Bird Conservation-. 4, 1997 Surveys in March and December 1995 by F. E. Hayes et al. located 45 birds along 39.2 km of trails; Río Bavispe update A survey in the Río Bavispe area Hayes’ team estimates that the of northern Sonora in November- Tobago population may now December 1996 located two number several hundred. Most previously unknown old-growth birds were in the Main Ridge forest patches, but found no signs Forest reserve, principally in of the female Imperial Wood­ mature montane forest, with a pecker Campephilus imperialis few records in marginal habitats that had been reported in the such as abandoned plantations. area in 1990 and 1993. Logging All birds were found above 280 m roads existed in both forests. The altitude: low altitude records survey revealed a new breeding were from areas where the birds site for Thick-billed Parrot were common in March but Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha, the absent in December, suggesting first for Sonora, and a single some seasonal movement. Eared Trogon Euptilotus • El Pitirre 10(1): 28, 1997 neoxenus. A new conservation zone has been proposed in the MEXICO northern Sonora/Chihuahua area, Hope for old-grow th forests Thick-billed Parrot Rhynchopsitta which encompasses Río Bavispe. The Mexican Government has pachyrhyncha habitat at Pico • J. M. Lammertink & R. L. Otto taken steps to help preserve the Guacamayas, northern Sonora. (J. M. in litt. 1997 last significant area of remnant Lammertink)

5 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News

Bearded W ood-Partridge Red Bank; subsequent investiga­ assisted world record is appar­ population hanging on tion revealed 20 kill sites in the ently 331, seen by Scott Robinson Jack Clinton-Eitniear has re­ area. Staff from the Cockscomb and the late Ted Parker in just a discovered a population of the Basin Wildlife Sanctuary single square mile of forest in rare Bearded Wood-Partridge expressed their concern to the Manu, Peru. Dendrortyx barbatus in an area of village chairman; the area is now • El Tucan 23(6): 6, 1997 intact cloud forest at Tlanchinol to be patrolled on a regular basis. in Hidalgo, at a site where the • Belize Audubon Society VENEZUELA species was found in 1986 (but Newsletter 29(1): 8, 1997 Venezuela designates four new could not be located in 1990). The Ram sar sites birds were discovered in an area Venezuela has named four new of very rugged terrain using voice Ramsar wetland sites, a playback. designation that came into effect • PQF News 9: 6, 1997 on 4 September 1996. Los Olivitos (Zulia) covers 26 000 ha CUBA of estuary, salt flats, mangrove Cuban Parakeet initiative swamps, brackish lagoons and Surveys are being carried out to sand dunes, and is one of the assess the status and distribution largest natural salt flats along of the threatened Cuban the north coast of South America. Parakeet Aratinga euops in order Tacarigua (Miranda) covers 9200 to construct an effective ha of permanent shallow saline programme for its conservation. lagoon, connected to the sea by a Once widespread throughout tidal channel. Restinga on Isla Cuba, the population is now Scarlet Macaw Ara macao (Charles Gambill) Margarita (Nueva Esparta) restricted to a few isolated sites. covers 5248 ha of shallow saline Excessive trapping and the loss of Yellow-headed Parrot in danger lagoon. Los Roques (Distrito its semi-deciduous woodland and of extinction Federal) covers 213 220 ha of palm savanna habitat are the The Yellow-headed Parrot small islands and cays with principal causes of its decline. Amazona oratrix, endemic to fringing mangroves and coral • Psittascene 8(2): 10, 1996 northern Central America, may reefs, and is one of the few be in danger of extinction due to Ramsar sites composed mainly of BELIZE persistent illegal trade. The coral reef. M aya forest land threatened population is thought to have • The Ramsar Newsletter 24: 9– Central America’s largest declined by 90% in the past 20 10, 1997 remaining area of intact rain years, and fewer than 7000 wild forest is being threatened by the birds are estimated to remain. Drug traffickers threaten construction of a new road in the Despite full legal protection, large f o r e s t s Toledo district of southern Belize. numbers of parrots are being Drug traffickers are clearing The project is being coordinated captured for trade, with the forest in the Sierra de Perijá by the Inter-American Develop­ United States being the principal National Park on the Colombian ment Bank (IDB) and is funded destination. border at a rate of 200 ha per by western governments. The • Belize Audubon Society year, cultivating opium poppies to IDB says that the road will bring Newsletter 29(1): 9–11, 1997 produce heroin. They have social and economic benefits to destroyed 2000 ha of the park the area, but the Maya people do PANAMA over the past six years. The not want their customary lands to Big day record for Panam a Venezuelan military burned a 200- be invaded by speculators and b r o k e n ha poppy field this February, but commercial farmers. On 23 March 1997 Dan Christian the size and remoteness of the • Oryx 31(2): 106, 1997 and Doug Robinson set a new area and the persistence of the record for the number of birds traffickers makes patrolling Scarlet Macaws shot seen on one day in Panama, difficult and dangerous. The park Scarlet Macaws Ara macao have recording 300 species between has an important population of been shot in the Stann Creek midnight and 8 pm. The previous the globally threatened Northern District of Belize. Three birds of a record for Panama was “some­ Helmeted Curassow Pauxi pauxi. flock of 21 were shot on 19 thing like 250”, set by Robert ■ Oryx 31(3): 176, 1997 February 1997 near the village of Ridgely. The non-helicopter • BBC Wildlife 15(5): 62, 1997

6 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News

locally extinct. Three species were found in greatly reduced numbers: Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma phaeopygia (an estimated 10–20 pairs remain), Chatham Mockingbird Nesomimus melanotis and Cactus Finch Geospiza scandens (restricted to a single 20-ha tract of cactus Opuntia megasperma forest). Introduced organisms Andean Condor Vultur gryphus (Dave Beadle) appear to be the main causes of these declines. Black Rats Rattus G overnm ent mining proposal against protected areas. He rattus are thought to predate the sparks debate believes the birds threaten his nests of ground-breeding birds A proposal by the Venezuelan plans for large-scale development such as the Pterodroma, government to mine the 3.6 and mass tourism in the Páramo Laterallus and Zenaida. Diseases million ha Imataca forest reserve de la Culata Park and Sierra such as avian pox and crop has generated a heated national Nevada National Park. The canker are believed to have debate. In May 1997, the future for the Venezuelan arrived with domestic pigeons government published a reintroduction programme, which and chickens. The exotic presidential decree accepting a commenced in 1993, looks bleak. blackberry vine Rubus niveus, revised management plan for • World Birdwatch 18(4): 4, 1996 guava Psidium guajava and Imataca, having effectively • Oryx 31(2): 106–107, 1997 pomarosa Eugenia jambos are omitted the required public reducing native floristic diversity. consultation process. The ECUADOR The net result could be the one of management plan does not Extinctions on San Cristóbal, the biggest losses of avian recognise the territorial rights of G a l á p a g o s diversity yet known in the indigenous communities, Fieldwork in 1996 on San Galápagos. identifies a ‘mixed management Cristóbal in the Galápagos area’ of 1.4 million ha destined produced some alarming findings. Illegal fishing threatens for mining activities, and even Four species (Galápagos Rail Galápagos waters permits timber extraction in the Laterallus spilonota , Galápagos Industrial fishing fleets from 1.6% of the reserve which retains Dove Zenaida galapagoensis, mainland Ecuador, the USA and protected status. The combination Large Tree-Finch Camarhynchus the Far East are threatening the of violation of national regula­ psittacula and Vermilion marine ecosystem of the tions and deliberate misleading of Flycatcher Pyrocephalus rubinus) Galápagos Islands by fishing in public opinion incited widespread could not be located, and may the Marine Reserve despite an resistance from political, conceivably have joined the two official ban. The Ecuadorian academic, environmental and species (Galapagos Hawk Buteo government has taken strong social organisations. Following galapagoensis, Sharp-billed measures to curb environmental nearly three months of protests, Ground-Finch Geospiza difficilis) degradation of the Galápagos. A the Supreme Court of Justice has already known to have become new decree prohibits all admitted the request for the annulment of the offending presidential decree on legal and constitutional grounds. Their verdict is eagerly awaited. • J. César Centeno in litt. August 1997

Condors killed in vendetta Four reintroduced Andean Condors Vultur gryphus have been shot in western Venezuela. The mayor of Mucuchies has been accused of instigating the shooting as part of his vendetta Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus (Charles Gambill)

7 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News commercial and industrial fishing introduced parasitic wasp Polistes del Río Nangaritza, en el until new laws for the islands versicolor which predates insect suroriente de los Andes have been approved and asserts larvae (a major source of food), ecuatorianos, monitoreos the status of the Galápagos and the introduced Black Rat ornitológicos han registrado casi Marine Reserve as a biological Rattus rattus which may prey on 300 especies de aves reserve, thereby strengthening eggs and young. Full protection of (Schulenberg, Parker y Wust governmental authority to its remaining habitat and a 1997; Krabbe y Sornoza 1994; enforce existing regulations. thorough population census are Toyne y Balchin en prep.; pers. Unfortunately, however, there are considered essential to ensure the obs.). En septiembre de este año insufficient resources to enforce finch’s survival. un equipo de Fundación Arcoiris, the ban. The endemic Galapagos • Conservation Biology 11(1): una ONG de Loja, realizó un Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus 119–126, 1997 monitoreo social y biológico and Galapagos Cormorant rápido en el Centro Shuar de Nannopterum harrisi are Longest-lived Sw allow -tailed Shaime en el Alto Nangaritza, particularly threatened. G u l l ? zona limitrofe con las laderas • Oryx 31(3): 176, 1997 A Swallow-tailed Gull Creagrus surorientales del Parque • WWF News Autumn 1997, 5 furcatus banded as a chick on Nacional Podocarpus. Esta región Plaza Sur in the Galápagos in se encuentra actualmente Status of M angrove Finch on February 1970 was relocated at intervenida tanto por operaciones the Galápagos Islands the same site in January 1996, a mineras y madereras como el The endangered Mangrove Finch longevity record for the species. ingreso de colonos y la Cactospiza heliobates is the Given that the breeding cycle of construcción de carreteras. Un rarest of “Darwin’s Finches”, this species lasts nine months resultado inesperado de la being known from just six (rather than 12), this individual estadía con el grupo jívaro Shuar mangrove patches on two islands has experienced around 35 fue la visita de una cueva de in the Galápagos. Surveys in 1994 nesting seasons. Tayos Steatornis caripensis and 1995 aimed to ascertain its • Noticias de Galápagos 57: 19– escondida debajo una finca current status at three sites: 20, 1996 boscosa perteneciendo a dos Punta Espinosa and Punta miembros de la comunidad de Mangle on Fernandina, and Playa Coastal forest threatened Shaime. Tortuga Negra on Isabela. The Commercial logging will shortly La importancia de la cueva results were not encouraging. The commence in the threatened para los asentamientos Shuar del species was not recorded on coastal forests of the Mache– Alto Nangaritza sobresalta en el Fernandina and may be locally Chindul mountains because the nombre que lleva la Federación extinct. At the site on Isabela, the budget of the Ministry of Parks de Centros Shuar en la región, population is believed to be 10–20 and Conservation (INEFAN) is ‘Tayunts’, palabra Jívaro cuyo pairs, a notable decline on too low to buy the land titles. significado literal es ‘cueva de previous estimates. The Ecuadorian conservationists had tayos con un río subterráneo’. La mangrove habitat at the two sites asked INEFAN to designate cueva se encuentra a 1.5 horas a on Fernandina was considered to 20 234 ha as a national park but pie de Shaime y mide unos 150 m be less suitable for the species the Ministry was only able to de largo por 10–20 m de alto. Se than that at the Isabela locality, purchase a fraction of this area. puede ingresar por ambos lados with little closed canopy and dead This has left the way clear for siguiendo la corriente de agua wood. The other sites on Isabela loggers to buy the land rights subterránea que cae en vertientes contain three to six times the from indigenous people and local sobre el substrato de rocas amount of habitat at Playa landowners. calizas. Tortuga Negra and thus — by • BBC Wildlife February 1997, Los Tayos nidifican en extrapolation — could contain 60– 55 quebraduras del techo y sobre 180 pairs each, giving a total repisas en la mitad superior de population estimate of 140,–380 M anejo sostenible de una cueva las paredes de la cueva. pairs. Such a population size is d e T a y o s Steatornis caripensis e n Estimamos que hasta 400 probably genetically viable, but la C ordillera del Cóndor Steatornis caripensis adultos any further decline would give Estudios biológicos destacaron nidifican en la cueva, con una cause for grave concern. Principal recien a la Cordillera del Cóndor reproducción anual de unos 1000 threats include mangrove como área clave para la juveniles, correspondiendo a 2–3 destruction, collection of dead conservación de la biodiversidad huevos por nido. Las aves salen al wood (which harbours much of en el neotrópico (Schulenberg y crepúsculo para alimentarse, the species’ food supply), an Awbrey 1997). Sólo en la cuenca particularmente de frutos de

8 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News palmeras, cuyos remanentes se so. From an estimated several encuentran cubriendo el piso de hundred thousand in the mid­ la cueva. nineteenth century, numbers La cosecha anual de juveniles have dropped to around 10 000 se realiza en el mes de marzo o birds in 1986, the most recent abril, cuando se cogen entre 150– census. The decrease has been 400 ‘pichones’ (juveniles). La attributed to guano harvesting extracción esta regulada por el and fishing activities. síndico del Centro de Shaime, Junin Grebes Podiceps taczanowskii • Penguin Conservation 10(1): 6– quien distribuye los productos de (Jon Fjeldså) 8, 1997 la cosecha entre las familias que participan. Los Tayos juveniles, covers an area of 460 000 ha and considerados más ricos en aceite is very important for Andean que los adultos, son comidos o waterfowl, migrating shorebirds reducidos a aceite, mayormente and three species of flamingo. para purgarse uno. Sin embargo, Reserva Nacional de Junin covers esta operación se cierro en 1996 the 40 000 ha of Lake Junin and por una diminución de la 13 000 ha of surrounding población de Tayos en la cueva, wetland. Lake Junín is, of course, atribuida a la cosecha ilicita de home to the endemic and las aves por los mismos Shuar. endangered Junin Grebe Podiceps Plumas encontradas en la cueva taczanowskii. Manglares de comprobaron que aves habían Tumbes covers 2972 ha of sido cogidas con escopeta en los coastal creeks, streams and últimos meses. Algunos nidos se mangroves and its designation is Blue-throated Macaws Ara glaucogularis encontraron también quebrados, an important step forward for (Charles Gambill) supuestamente por la extracción mangrove conservation in South de huevos con palos. Además, America. Pantanos de Vila covers algunas fuentes sugieron que un 396 ha of coastal lagoon within BOLIVIA uwishin (shaman) de la región the city limits of Lima and is an Blue-throated M acaw decline habría hechizado a la cueva para important urban wetland A 1996 survey of a stronghold of que no pongan las hembras. supporting 17 species of the Blue-throated Macaw Ara Aunque el manejo de la cueva migratory shorebird and many glaucogularis in eastern Bolivia queda en manos de la comunidad Humboldt current species. revealed a decline of 50% from de Shaime, el desarollo incipiente • The Ramsar Newsletter 24: 8– the previous year. The total wild del turismo ecológico en el Río 9, 1997 population now numbers no more Nangaritza podría aprovechar than 100 pairs, distributed over este extraordinario fenómeno 15 000 km2. The study site lies natural y apoyar su manejo en near a main road into Brazil and forma sostenible. En el momento, trappers are smuggling birds los dueños de la finca que abarca across the border. An education la cueva tienen planes programme — coordinated by the actualmente para construir su Asociación Armonía — is casa familiar cerca de Tayunts, underway to encourage macaw para vigilar el sitio y enseñarlo a conservation; the same organisa­ visitantes interesados. tion is negotiating an agreement • Anibal Chwinda, Jeremy whereby landowners assume Flanagan, Chris Jiggins, responsibility for the macaws on Teresa Sukanga y Jake Willis, their land. Octubre 1997 • World Birdwatch 19(1): 4, 1997 Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus humboldti • Psittascene 9(2): 10–11, 1997 (Lyn W ells) PERU Peru identifies four new … and theft

Ram sar sites Hum boldt Penguin decline Following pressure from Peru has designated four new c o n t i n u e s conservationists, the Bolivian Ramsar wetland sites, with effect Humboldt Penguins Spheniscus government has ordered an from 20 January 1997. The humboldti have declined sharply inquiry into the disappearance of Peruvian sector of Lake Titicaca in Peru over the last 100 years or six Blue-throated Macaws Ara

9 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News glaucogularis from Santa Cruz Carrasco and Parque Nacional Blue-winged Macaw Ara Zoo. Other globally threatened Pilón Lajas - lack management maracana, and it is now hoped to species missing were two plans and receive little protec­ introduce eggs from captive C. Hyacinth Macaws Anodorhynchus tion. spixii into their nest, thus hyacinthinus and seven Red- • Bird Conservation Interna­ gradually building up the fronted Macaws Ara rubrogenys. tional 7: 199–211, 1997 population of pure Spix’s Macaws. The zoo director is liable to face • BBC Wildlife 15(9), 1997 prosecution if unable to provide a BRAZIL satisfactory explanation. Independent panel criticises Threat to Alagoas reserve • World Birdwatch 19(1): 4, 1997 H i d r o v i a Forest adjacent to the Murici An independent panel has reserve in the Alagoas region has concluded that the current been felled right up to the reserve designs and evaluations for the border and approximately half of Hidrovia Paraguay-Paraná the protected area forest sold. Project — one of the largest Despite a fine from IBAMA, the proposed infrastructure projects landowners policy appears in the Neotropics — are funda­ unchanged. Moreover, the reserve mentally flawed. The panel, guard had reportedly not been comprising researchers from paid for two months prior to Southern Helmeted Curassow North and South America, was January 1997, and evidence was Pauxi unicornis (Jon Fjeldså) invited by the Environmental found of illegal entry to the Defence Fund and the Fundação reserve. This area is the only New inform ation on Southern Centro Brasilierio de Referenda e known site for Alagoas Antwren Helm eted Curassow Apoio Cultural to review official Myrmotherula snowi, Alagoas A four-year study of Southern studies. Its role was to determine Foliage-gleaner Philydor novaesi Helmeted Curassow Pauxi whether the current project (not certainly recorded for several unicornis has revealed this would achieve its aim of years) and White-collared Kite threatened species to be fairly promoting sustainable develop­ Leptodon forbesi. It also harbours common in a narrow elevational ment, and to evaluate the populations of the endangered range on the eastern slopes of methods, analyses and conclu­ Orange-bellied Antwren Terenura Andean foothills within Parque sions of the studies. The panel sicki, Seven-coloured Tanager Nacional Amboró in Santa Cruz considered that the existing Tangara fastuosa, Buff-throated province. The species favours the economic studies were inad­ Purpletuft Iodopleura pipra, interior of tall secondary growth, equate, overestimating the Scalloped Antbird Myrmeciza possibly nesting in river-edge project’s benefits (e.g. iron ore ruficauda, Yellow-faced Siskin vegetation. Two vocalisation exports) and underestimating its Carduelis yarrellii, Pinto’s types included a booming song, costs (e.g. loss of fisheries). Spinetail Synallaxis given by territorial males during Moreover, the assessments of infuscata, White-winged Cotinga the breeding season, October- potential ecological consequences Xipholena atropurpurea and December; the mean length of a were so seriously flawed that the Black-headed Berryeater booming session was 58 minutes. judgement of ‘low to moderate’ Carpornis melanocephalus, as The concentration of booming impact could not be accepted as well as many endemic and males in a small area of the study credible. The panel recommended endangered subspecies. site indicated either that the additional studies, greater • A. Whittaker in litt., February species is polygamous or that consideration of transport 1997 and October 1997 breeding occurs during alternatives and improved aggregations of monogamous consultation with the region’s pairs. The long-term survival of communities. the species depends primarily on • EDF/CEBRAC press release the adequate management of the 450 000 ha Amboró National Spix’s M acaw update Park; a new management plan The attempt in 1994 to achieve has been prepared by the wild breeding of Spix’s Macaw Fundación Amigos de la Cyanopsitta spixii by releasing a Naturaleza and financed by The female to join the last remaining Nature Conservancy. Other sites male (see Cotinga 4: 10–11) failed from which the species is known when the female disappeared. Yellow-faced Siskin Carduelis yarrellii — including Parque Nacional The male has paired with a wild (Jon Fjeldså)

10 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News

C o n t i n u i n g timber illegally. IBAMA is also uncertainty at auditing forest management A tlantic forest plans, removing corrupt h o t s p o t employees and using satellite A two-year technology to identify illegal survey of Parque logging activities. Estadual • The Guardian, 1 January 1997 Intervales in São Paulo state has Roseate Tern w intering highlighted the grounds located precarious future The wintering grounds of Roseate faced by one of Terns Sterna dougallii nesting in Brazil’s most North America have finally been important sites located. Banding recoveries for rare Atlantic indicate that birds from all Black-fronted Piping-Guan Pipile jacutinga (Jon Fjeldså) forest birds. The known breeding colonies in the park is one of the north-eastern United States Notes on the Jacutinga few protected areas in the winter along the Brazilian coast. The Black-fronted Piping-Guan or Atlantic forest encompassing a It is hoped that further studies Jacutinga Pipile jacutinga used to large altitudinal gradient still will elucidate the causes of be one of the most abundant covered by pristine forest (from winter mortality. cracids of the Atlantic forest of 20–1095 m). Thirty-one • Endangered Species Bulletin south-east Brazil, north-east threatened or near-threatened 22(4): 25, 1997 Argentina and eastern Paraguay. species occur at Intervales, most However, habitat loss and notably Black-eared Parrotlet Seabirds die in fire hunting have severely reduced its Touit melanonota, Blue-bellied In January 1997, a fire killed 144 numbers and it is now considered Parrot Triclaria malachitacea Magnificent Frigatebirds Fregata endangered. Over six years, and Black-backed Tanager magnificens and 106 Brown Mauro Galetti and colleagues Tangara peruviana. However, the Boobies Sula leucogaster, and recorded P. jacutinga at 14 remaining forest is under threat destroyed nearly all the localities in São Paulo, Brazil. from palm heart poachers vegetation of Redonda Island in The cracid was mainly observed (“palmiteiros”), from cattle the Abrolhos Archipelago, Bahia on the slopes of the coastal introduced into secondary state. The fire was caused by mountains, being extremely rare vegetation and from a possible fireworks, and proved impossible in lowland forests. At Parque mining and dam construction to control in the high winds. Estadual Intervales, one of the project. Moreover, the state • BirdLife in the Americas 2(1): best protected areas in the state, government has reduced the 7, 1997 the population density was only number of rangers at the park; 1.7 birds per km2. The species’ one upshot has been an increase stronghold lies in the Sierra de in hunting. Paranapiacaba, an area which • Bird Conservation Interna­ contains several protected parks, tional 7: 235–261. 1997 but which is nevertheless threatened by a hydroelectric Asian loggers target Brazil project, hunting and the Logging companies from extraction of Euterpe palms. The Malaysia and China are buying Brazilian population of P. small local logging enterprises in Brazil and using their forest Male W hite-winged Nightjar jacutinga may be less than 1500 Caprimulgus candicans (Rob G. Pople) birds. Birds were observed to feed management plans (already mainly on the sugar-rich fruits of approved by the governmental 41 different plant species. environment agency IBAMA) to PARAGUAY Interestingly, seasonal displace­ log and export timber. Regula­ New inform ation on W hite­ ment following ripening Euterpe tions for sustainable forest winged Nightjar and other fruits — a common hypothesis to management are being violated. threatened bird species explain the distribution of P. Despite insufficient IBAMA staff Project Aguará Ñu is currently jacutinga — was not noted. for thorough control of illegal conducting biological and socio­ • Biological Conservation 82: 31– logging, two foreign countries economic surveys within the 39, 1997 have been fined for exporting cerrados of Aguará Ñu, Reserva

11 COTINGA 8 Neotropical News

include a minimum of eight probably be exported to Japan as Ocellated Crake Micropygia wood chips. schomburgkii calling daily, three • Plant Conservation News, male Bearded Tachuri Polystictus September 1996, 4 pectoralis (two on 2–3 October and one on 8 October), a female M agellanic Penguin decline (7 October) and single male An ongoing study of the Rufous-rumped Seedeater Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus Sporophila hypochroma (6–8 magellanicus at Punta Tombo has October and 13 October), small revealed a decrease of 19–20% in numbers of Lesser Grass-finch the number of active nests Emberizoides ypiranganus (new between 1987 and 1995. The for the reserve), Sharp-tailed colony — which holds 40% of the Grass-tyrant Culicivora Argentine population — is caudacuta and larger numbers of believed to have declined White-banded Tanager annually since 1982. The biggest Neothraupis fasciatus. single drop was in 1991 when an Other interesting sightings oil spill killed an estimated include two first records for 17 000 penguins just prior to the Paraguay (Cinnamon Tanager breeding season. Allowing for a Male Rufous-winged Antshrike Schi stochlamys ruficapillus and 5% annual decrease since 1982, Thamnophilus torquatus , n e w t o Paraguay (C. P. Kennedy) Rufous-winged Antshrike the population may have declined Thamnophilus torquatus) and by 50% in 15 years. Due to Natural del Bosque Mbaracayú four further species new for the overfishing and inshore oil spills (see Cotinga 4: 52–57), north-east reserve (Great Dusky Swift Magellanic Penguins have been Paraguay. This site holds one of Cypseloides Senex, White-naped forced to forage up to 325 km only two known populations of Xenopsaris Xenopsaris from their colonies, leading chicks the critically endangered White­ albinucha, Helmeted Manakin to starve. So far there has been winged Nightjar Caprimulgus Antilophia galeata and Grassland little effort to enforce interna­ candicans. Work has focused on Yellow-finch Sicalis luteola). tional regulations against ocean this species: a minimum of 12 • David Capper in litt. October dumping of oil, although Chubut individuals have been 1997 province is to attempt to bar located with three males and two large ships from coastal waters females radio-tagged in an from 1998. The Punta Tombo attempt to understand the basic colony is visited by 50 000 conservation requirements of this tourists each year. little-known bird. Roost sites • Penguin Conservation 10(1): 2– have been located for the first 4, 1997 time and the previously unknown • New York Times, 11 June 1997 adult female plumage described. Three further threatened N ew colonies of O lrog’s Gull species have been recorded. Four d i s c o v e r e d Rufous-faced Crake Laterallus Seven new colonies of Olrog’s xenopterus were heard and tape- Gull Larus atlanticus have been recorded during July-August and discovered, all on islands or islets a further bird was seen in a Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus and all associated with Kelp different area on 14 October. Four (Charles Gambill) Gulls Larus dominicanus. L. singing male Black-masked Finch atlanticus is endemic to the Coryphaspiza melanotis were on ARGENTINA Argentine Atlantic coast and is territories during October and a Patagonian forests to be logged considered threatened. The total single male Marsh Seedeater Trillium Inc., a USA company, population is estimated at 2300 Sporophila palustris was seen has been given governmental pairs, 40% of them within the associating with a large mixed- approval to fell over 150 000 ha of Bahia Blanca estuary which is species flock of Sporophila lenga Nothofagus pumilio under intense pressure from seedeaters on 6 October. deciduous forest without carrying human activity. Eight near-threatened species out an ecological impact • Bird Conservation Interna­ have been recorded. These assessment. The timber will tional 7: 161–165, 1997

12 COTINGA 8 Taxonom ic Round-up

the largest numbers of Black­ necked Swan Cygnus melancoryphus in central Chile and the southernmost breeding population of Coscoroba Swan Coscoroba coscoroba. The other five sites are in the Puna region of the high Andes and consist of salares (high altitude salt lakes and temporary marshes), remnants of a Pleistocene sea which was isolated in a closed O lrog’s Gulls Larus atlanticus (Jon Fjeldså) catchment as the Andes grew higher. One site, Salar de Tara, Pesticide w ithdraw n to save Swainson’s Hawks were found in has an important colony of the Swainson’s Hawks the area last winter, the first globally threatened Puna The potent pesticide which was following withdrawal. However, Flamingo Phoenicopterus jamesi. being used to kill grasshoppers in 26 birds were found dead in • The Ramsar Newsletter 24: 7– La Pampas region and which is eastern Córdoba province in 8, 1997 thought to have been responsible February 1997, following for the deaths of up to 20 000 application of an unidentified Swainson’s Hawks Buteo organophosphate pesticide. swainsonii which feed on the • World Birdwatch 19(1): 2, 1997 grasshoppers (see Cotinga 6: 11) • BirdLife in the Americas 2(1): has now been withdrawn 2, 1997 following an agreement between the American Bird Conservancy CHILE and the manufacturer, Ciba- Six new Ram sar sites nam ed Geigy. The manufacturer has The Chilean authorities have bought back stock from farmers named six new Ramsar wetland and is supporting a public sites, effective from 2 December education programme. The 1996. One is El Yali, a system of Argentine government has agreed marshes and lagoons associated to ban use of the pesticide on with the mouth of the Río Yali. El Swainson’s Hawk Buteo swainsonii grasshoppers and alfalfa. Yali holds wintering Chilean (Charles Gambill) Encouragingly, no dead Flamingo Phoenicopterus chilensis,

13 COTINGA 9

Neotropical News

NORTH AMERICA It has also been suggested that a MONTSERRAT private or corporately sponsored Rescue plan for national bird More on managing Kirtland’s trust could reduce the warbler’s An emergency rescue plan has Warbler dependence on public funding. been launched to save the The population of Kirtland’s • Bird Calls, November 1997. 5 Montserrat Oriole Icterus oberi. Warbler Dendroica kirtlandii has endemic to the small island of shown a welcome increase over CARIBBEAN Montserrat. This near-threatened the last 10 years (733 singing species faces an uncertain future males were counted last year) PUERTO RICO following volcanic activity over and habitat figures suggest that Funding urged for acquisition the past two years. Eruptions the population will probably of Cabo Rojo Salt Flats from the Soufrière volcano have remain in the range of 600–700 US Interior Secretary Bruce destroyed large areas of the singing males during the next Babbitt is being urged to support oriole’s forest habitat in addition few years. However, the the use of $3 million from the to the island’s capital, Plymouth. continued existence of this Land and Water Conservation The main stronghold of the oriole enigmatic warbler is entirely Fund from the 1998 Interior in the Soufrière Hills in the south dependent on human manage­ Appropriations Bill to acquire of the island has been largely ment of its habitat and control of 1000 acres of the Cabo Rojo Salt destroyed by lava flows and ash: the brood-parasitic Brown­ Flats in Puerto Rico. This would the forest of the Centre Hills has headed Cowbird Molothrus ater provide a welcome addition to the been covered with some ash, but in its breeding area. This is an Cabo Rojo National Wildlife surveys in October 1997 indicated expensive business and recent Refuge, which consists of that a significant population of changes in politics and fiscal saltwater lagoons, subtropical dry orioles remains in this area. Prior policy have placed the future of forest, mangroves and sandy to the eruptions, the species’ the Kirtland’s Warbler recovery beaches. The salt flats form one of population had been estimated at program in jeopardy. The US Fish the largest remaining undis­ 1,000 birds. In November 1997, and Wildlife Service contribution turbed areas for migrating biologists from WWF-Montserrat to the programme and the Forest shorebirds in the Caribbean and and two UK-based organisa­ Service wildlife budget have both the US Fish and Wildlife Service tions — the Royal Society for the been cut over the last two years, has described them as the most Protection of Birds and the with further cuts anticipated. The important area for migratory Jersey Wildlife Preservation public can help by lobbying these shorebirds in Puerto Rico and the Trust — drew up an action plan at two organisations to reverse US Virgin Islands, with more the invitation of the Montserrat these cuts and ensure continued than 40,000 shorebirds passing Government. In addition, further protection for Kirtland’s Warbler. through each year. Several surveys were made by a 11-man uncommon species are dependent team in December 1997: these on these salt flats, including suggested that a few thousand Brown Pelican Pelecanus orioles may survive in the occidentalis. Peregrine Falco remaining forested areas and peregrinus, Piping Plover eight mist-netted orioles all Charadrius melodus and Yellow­ appeared healthy. Nevertheless, shouldered Blackbird Agelaius the action plan recommends that xanthomas. The area also there is no current need to provides a feeding ground for establish a captive breeding manatees and a nesting area for programme although careful three species of sea turtle, all of monitoring is essential, and that which are threatened or veterinary advice should be endangered. sought on the potential direct • Bird Calls, November 1997, 7 effects of volcanic ash and dust. K irtla n d ’s W a rb le r Dendroica kirtlandii (David Beadle) Gerard Gray, chief forestry and

8 COTINGA 9 N eotropical News environment officer /WWF- otherwise — causing severe GUATEMALA Montserrat conservation officer, disturbance to the birds’ feeding Rainforest protected said “the oriole is our national habits. During a three-month In November 1996, it was bird and we don’t want to lose it. study at the 59 130 ha Celestún announced that the Cerro San Gil Many Montserratians have left Estuary, a Special Biosphere area had been declared a the island but the orioles and Reserve in Yucatán, Eduardo National Protected Area. The other wildlife have nowhere to go. Galicia and Guy Baldassare park’s total area is 48 000 ha of If things get worse, at least we evaluated the effect of motor which 21 000 ha is very humid have a rescue plan for them.” tour boats on the behaviour of the tropical forest, the largest such • RSPB/WWF press release, flamingos. There was an average fragment remaining in the November 1997 of 13 tour boats per day, disturb­ country. • David Gibbons in litt. 1998 ing the flamingo flock for a daily • Oryx 32 (1): 29, 1998 average of 3.3 hours. The United States-based researchers SOUTH AMERICA discovered that the flamingos’ ‘alert behaviour’ increased by SURINAME 400% when boats are present and Rebuff to logging concerns that the ensuing disturbance A recent presidential decree has reduced feeding time by 40%. limited timber concessions to Such costs to the birds should be 150 000 ha and placed a weighed against the educational moratorium on all pending and financial benefits of concessions until a nationwide ecotourism; over half the tourists forestry strategy has been were Mexican nationals, and completed. This announcement Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto nearly 90% of these were willing follows a two-year conservation (Lyn Wells) to pay a reserve entrance fee to campaign which has demon­ see the birds. Galicia and strated the shortcomings in Introduced Collared Doves Baldassare recommend that large-scale logging contracts and continue to spread conservation efforts focus on the pointed out alternatives. Collared Doves Streptopelia education of tour-boat operators • Oryx 32 (1): 30, 1998 decaocto, introduced to the town to reduce disturbance to • Conservation International. of Saint-Claude in Guadeloupe in flamingos, education of tourists August 1997 1976, have undergone a through a visitors’ centre and substantial range expansion over bilingual brochures, and through ECUADOR the subsequent 20 years. From an expanded involvement of local Local communities take action original population of 20 birds, people. against mining operation recent research has revealed that • Conservation Biology 11 (5): Direct action by disaffected local the species has spread through­ 1159–1165, 1997 communities in Junin, north-west out Guadeloupe, and north to the Ecuador, may have saved 1500 islands of Montserrat and Nevis, ha of Choco forest from being and south to Cominique and destroyed to make way for the Martinique. The subpopulation construction of a new mine. involved is quite distinct from The mining project by that released in the Bahamas in Bishimetals, a subsidiary of the mid-1970s which has now Mitsubishi, would have con­ colonised Florida (USA) and structed open pits, new roads, Cuba. dams and a mining plant in part • Alauda 65: 245–250, 1997 of the buffer zone of the 250 000 ha Cotacachi–Cayapas Ecological CENTRAL AMERICA Reserve, which holds six threatened bird species including MEXICO Baudo Guan Penelope ortoni, Evidence that ecotourism Long-wattled Umbrellabird disturbs Greater Flamingos Cephalopterus penduliger and Tourists taking motorised boat Scarlet-breasted Dacnis Dacnis trips to see non-breeding Greater berlepschi. An environmental Flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber Greater Flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber impact study also warned that in Mexico are — unwittingly or (Lyn Wells) the Mitsubishi project would

9 COTINGA 9 Neotropical News

have caused the relocation of 100 responsible, eight years ago, for Federal Court because communi­ families from four communities triggering the regional conserva­ ties living in the forest had not and the immigration of 5000 tion process. been consulted. IBAMA is now mine workers to the area. Currently, Fundación Natura trying to persuade these Following six years of govern­ is seeking funds to expand the communities to approve the plan. ment refusals to inform local nature reserve to include an Some critics say that IBAMA’s communities about the impact of apparently distinctive type of motives are political, centred the mine, villagers invited state forest situated along the ridge around the aspirations of the officials to a summit in May 1997 between the Virolín river and agency’s president to become to discuss the issue. The officials Cachalú farm. Natura is also Brazil’s next Minister of failed to attend. In response, 100 proposing a more ambitious Environment. villagers burned the existing campaign, entitled the Tropical It is also reported that forest mine construct to the ground. Andes Program, aimed to expand burning in the Brazilian Amazon Ecuadorian conservationist conservation initiatives to increased by 28% from 1996 to Carlos Zorilla called the case “a conserve the remaining but 1997. The source for this figure clear wake-up call to rapidly declining montane forests was a new satellite which passes governments … and to big mining of Colombia2. over the region at night (when companies in particular, that References most fires started during the day local populations must not be 1. Andrade, G. I. & Repizzo, A. have been extinguished), rather ignored, and that their rights to (1994) Guanentá-Alto Río than during the day as with the decide their own future must Fonce Fauna and Flora previous satellite survey, so the never be overlooked.” Sanctuary: a new protected true increase may be consider­ • Rainforest Review, winter 1997 area in the Colombian East ably higher. Andes. Cotinga 2: 420044. • Environmental News Service, COLOMBIA 2. Cavelier, J. & Etter, A. (1995) October 1997 New private reserve for Deforestation of montane Colombian endemics forests in Colombia as a Environmentalists welcome In a previous note, I reported on result of illegal plantations U-turn over Hidrovia project the creation of the 10 000-ha of opium (Papaver Environmentalists have Guanentá Wildlife Sanctuary1 as somniferum). In Churchill, S. cautiously welcomed an a major step towards the R, Baslev, H., Forero, E. & announcement by the head of protection of the Gorgeted Wood- Luteyn, J. L. Biodiversity Brazil’s environmental agency, quail Odontophorus strophium and conservation of IBAMA, that the country is and the Black Inca Coeligena Neotropical montane forests. abandoning plans to construct prunellei, among a number of New York: New York Botani­ the Paraguay-Paraná industrial globally threatened species. On 4 cal Garden. waterway, known as the October 1997, Fundación Natura “hidrovia”. Instead, the govern­ was able to announce, in a public • Contributed by Germán I. ment says it will restrict its meeting held at El Encino Andrade interventions in the Pantanal Municipality, the creation of the wetlands to “minor works” which 740 ha Cachalú Biological BRAZIL will not place the ecosystem at Preserve. This new protected Brazil considering logging of risk. Ecologists have expressed area is still covered in undis­ National Forests their concern that the project turbed Neotropical oak forest IBAMA, the Brazilian Environ­ may proceed in a different form, (Quercus humboldtii) and a mental Protection Agency, is to still causing significant environ­ narrow belt of critically endan­ consider allowing sustainable mental impacts. The Hidrovia gered subandean rainforest. logging of Brazil’s National project, as designed in studies This significant moment for Forests by logging companies, funded by the Inter-American local conservation has been despite claims by environmental­ Development Bank and the possible thanks to the support of ists that the feasibility of United Nations Development the German Oro Verde Founda­ sustainable logging, even on a Programme, plans to channel tion, through the active local scale, has not been proven. 3,400 km of the Paraguay and participation of its director, The first experimental logging, in Paraná Rivers for industrial use, Manfred Niekisch; the Swiss the Tapajós National Park, Pará and was being promoted by the Audemars Piguet Foundation; state, not only received much governments of Brazil, Bolivia, and the continuing generosity of criticism from environmentalists Paraguay, Argentina and Alvaro Caycedo, whose interest in (including some within IBAMA) Uruguay. However, scientists nature conservation was but was ultimately curtailed by a have warned that the work could

10 COTINGA 9 Neotropical News alter the hydrology of the river kawalli. Initially described from a Yellow-nosed Albatross Diomedea system, causing the Pantanal to handful of specimens taken in the chlororhynchos. Olmos found that dry out. wild or captives from unknown the flocks of seabirds attending • Glenn Switkes in litt., March localities, its taxonomic status the boats showed a greater 1998 has only recently been clarified species diversity during summer (see Cotinga 7: 12–13). The than winter (16 versus nine New reserves in Amazonas authors discovered a population species), although the number of and Bahia of this little-known species along birds per flock tended to be In October 1997, the state the headwaters of the Rio Tapajós greater during the cold season. government of Amazonas and its tributaries — a forested During summer, Spectacled announced the protection of the area in the Brazilian Amazonian Petrel was the commonest largest area of tropical rainforest lowlands bounded by massifs— in species, followed by Great in South America. The new 1995–1996. White-cheeked Shearwater Puffinus gravis and Amaná Reserve covers 2 350 000 Amazon appears to be largely Cory's Shearwater Calonectris ha in the central Amazon basin restricted to seasonally flooded diomedea. During winter, White- between the Rios Negro and forests and related transitional chinned Petrel Procellaria a. Japurá and surrounding the 75- habitats. Adjacent uplands and aequinoctialis, Yellow-nosed km-long Lake Amaná, and will semideciduous forests are Albatross and Black-browed connect Mamirauá Flooded occupied by Mealy Parrot Albatross Diomedea melanophris Forest Reserve and Jaú National Amazona farinosa. The authors were the commonest species. Park. The combined area of these concur with others authors, Marked differences in the three reserves is 5 766 000 ha. notably Collar & Pittman (1996– relative abundance of species The new reserve was declared Amazona kawalli is a valid name were observed between the two under the auspices of the Pilot for a valid species. Bull. Brit. seasons, probably because of a Programme for the Protection of Orn. Club 116: 256–265), in combination of migratory the Rainforest, a G7-funded concluding that the White­ movements, seasonal shifts in sea project which aims to create cheeked Amazon is a valid currents and the influence of cold protected-area corridors in species, on the basis of its fronts. The 19 species recorded Brazil, and is the first area to be distinctive voice, bare part included a probable Audubon’s designated with a new legal colours and general morphology. Shearwater Puffinus lherminieri status — Sustainable Development Perhaps unsurprisingly, the (recently found to breed off south­ Reserve — which acknowledges parrot’s future is already east Brazil, to which the nearest the rights of the 2000 inhabit­ uncertain: hunting for food by the colonies are in Trinidad & ants of the reserve to remain and local human population, the pet Tobago) and an apparent encourages their participation in trade, gold and tin mining, immature Cape Gannet Morus its protection. hydroelectric projects and forest capensis. The creation of the Serra do clearance all pose threats to its ■ Ibis 139: 685–691, 1997 Conduru State Park in coastal continued survival. Bahia is an important step- • Ararajuba 5 (2): 97–113, 1997 ARGENTINA forward for conservation of the Monocrotophos pesticide kills increasingly beleaguered pockets Important seabird waters found over 62 000 birds in Argentina of Atlantic forest in the state. The off south-east Brazil In Entre Rios province more than new park encompasses 7000 ha Recent observations from bottom 62 000 birds have been poisoned of forest and has been developed long-line commercial fishing on just one farm, and the final in the hope of boosting tourism in boats off south-east Brazil has the area. provided many new insights into • Oryx 32 (1): 30, 1998 the poorly known pelagic seabird • BBC Wildlife 16 (1): 21, 1998 community of the warm Brazil • Conservation International, Current. Brazilian ornithologist August 1997 Fábio Olmos found these waters to be an important feeding area Amazona kawalli for some seabird populations A paper in the most recent issue nesting in the Tristan da Cunha of Ararajuba, by Paulo and Gough group, especially for Martuscelli and Carlos non-breeding Spectacled Petrel Yamashita, announces the Procellaria aequinoctialis rediscovery of White-faced or conspicillata and post-breeding Swainson’s Hawk Buteo swainsoni White-cheeked Amazon Amazona (Charles Gambill)

11 COTINGA 9 Neotropical News total is likely to reach 100 000. A large autumn concentration entangled in fishermen’s nets and This is thought to be due to the of waterbirds discovered at the author concludes that, coating of grains of rice and corn Puerto Natales although a 35-km protection zone with monocrotophos prior to On 28 April 1995 a huge around the colony might reduce planting. Apparently, local concentration of 30 000–35 000 such mortality in the breeding agricultural officials advised waterbirds of 18 species was season, this would probably have farmers to do this to avoid crop observed by François Vuilleumier little effect outside the breeding damage by birds and it is feared near Puerto Natales, Magallanes, season when the birds apparently that this practice has also in Chilean Patagonia. This wander more widely. occurred on other farms. appears to be the largest ■ Penguin Conservation 10(2): 2, Monocrotophos is the pesticide concentration of waterbirds ever 1997 which recently killed 20 000 reported from this area, which is Swainson’s Hawks Buteo already known as a wintering swainsoni in Argentina and is waterbird site. The numbers banned in most developed included 20 000 Black-necked nations. Hopefully a worldwide Cygnus melacoryphus and ban can be agreed in the near 1000–2000 Coscoroba Swans future. Coscoroba coscoroba. Although • Bird Calls: November 1997, 3 locally common in the Magallanes region, Black-necked Swan has CHILE been classed as Vulnerable in Survey of Mocha Island Chile as a whole, while Coscoroba A survey of Mocha Island, off the Swan has recently been classed coast of Chile, in January 1997, as Endangered in Chile and by Roberto Schlatter, Daniella Vulnerable in Magallanes. The Guicking and Susanne Mickstein, area is also important for Chilean estimated that the population of Flamingo Phoenicopterus Pink-footed Shearwater Puffinus chilensis and is not protected at Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus humboldti creatopus is no more than 25 000 present; the author urges that (Lyn Wells) pairs. The shearwater breeds in the Corporación Nacional natural forest in a national Forestal (CONAF) of Chile Large park donated by reserve on the island and the designates the area as a national businessman chicks have long been harvested park in view of these important An American businessman has for food in March and April. findings. bought 2500 km2 of land south of Habitat degradation has also • Ornitología Neotropical 8(1): Santiago in an ambitious project occurred due to introduced dogs 1–5, 1997 to establish a nature reserve. The and rats (which the islanders use area extends from the coast to to extract chicks from their Humboldt Penguins radio- the Argentine border and burrows). The field workers also tracked at sea includes temperate forest. After discovered the northernmost Recent studies of Humboldt initial suspicion from the Chilean breeding colony of Blue-eyed Penguin Spheniscus humboldti government and military, Donald Cormorant Phalacrocorax on Pan de Azúcar Island, off Tompkins has proceeded with his atriceps, and the southernmost northern Chile, have revealed intention to donate the Pumalin breeding colonies of Peruvian that they are not as sedentary as Park to a special foundation. In Booby Sula variegata and had been supposed. Boris Culik return, the government has Peruvian Pelican Pelecanus fitted radio-transmitters to accorded the land protected thagus, on two small islets just penguins in the 1994–95 and status, although certain south of the main island. 1995–96 breeding seasons and government-sanctioned mining The surveyors also propose discovered that almost all their activities will be permitted that South American Tern Sterna feeding is done within a 35-km conditionally. The project has not hirundinacea be classed as radius of the colony. However, a been without its critics: Vulnerable, as it is very radio-transmitter fitted outside Tompkin’s approach has been susceptible to human disturbance the breeding season revealed that accused of being culturally naïve on its nesting beaches and it has one bird travelled 640 km from and insensitive. decreased recently in the Valdivia the island between 24 May–26 • The Guardian 4 August 1997, region of Chile. June 1996. It is known that 10–11 • BirdLife International Update Humboldt Penguins suffer • Oryx 31: 240, 1997 4: 3, 1997 mortality through becoming

12 COTINGA 10 Neotropical News

Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN CENTRAL AMERICA if it is a ll owed to proceed. Associated developments, such as BAHAMAS BELIZE road building and an influx of News on Kirtland's Warbler Unsustainable logging in Mayan peo pl e to the area, will further wintering habitat forests threaten this area of fo rest, A study of Kirtland's Warbler Thirty-nine Mayan villages and which separates the Mosquito Dendroica hirtlandii on its two protected areas are being coast from inland Honduras, and wintering grounds in the affected by unsustainable logging will also destroy any chance of Bahamas has di scovered that it is activities in so uth Belize. Logging establishing the Mosquito Forest perhaps reliant on Caribbean concessions now total over as a corridor reserve between the Pine Pinus caribaea woodland: 200,000 ha a nd the Belize two areas. The local Tawahka 60% of records with habitat government has revoked the people, who live a long the river, details mention pines or pine protected status of the Maya plan to establish a 233,142 ha understorey. It was previously Natural Resources Reservation, Tawahka Asangni Biosphere thought that Kirtland's Warbler permitting a timber company Reserve to link the Platano principally wintered in scrub and access to the area. The local Biosphere Reserve in the north avoided pine woodland. Two Audubon Society claims the with the Bosawas Reserve in the periods of apparent decline in logging companies are illegally south, and are lobbying the Kirtland's Warbler numbers this fe lling protected sapodilla Honduras government to ce ntury, and their recent (1990s) Manillmra zapota trees and are establish this reserve, which increase, correlate with the operating within the 20 m requires legal status to protect degradation and recovery of the restricted zo ne beside water­ the area and its native people. fire-dependent pine ecosystem in co urses, increasing erosion and Oryx 32 (3): 188, 1998 the northern Bahamas, and a re­ affecting drinking water supplies. evaluation of the conservation Sustainable fo restry is possible in SOUTH AMERICA priorities for this species­ Belize. For example, the UK presently centred around the company Green & Black produce ECUADOR breeding a rea in Mic higan­ organic chocolate grown by the Mining threat to western appears necessary. local Mayan people wi th a forests Co ndor 100: 20 1-217, 1998 premium paid to those growing a There are plans to undertake variety of tree spec ies as part of industrial mining in the Toison the shade system to improve the range in western Ecuador, an wi ldlife habitat quality of the area which includes the last cocoa plantations. remaining stands of clo ud- and • Oryx 32 (2): 103, 1998 rainforest on the Pacific slope. The area borders the Cotachi­ HONDURAS Cayapas Ecological Reserve, Rainforests threatened by dam which will now be at risk from The proposed Patuca 2 dam, on road co nstruction and associated Kirtland's Warbler Dendroico kirtlandii the River Patuca, will flood a development. Only 14% of (D. Beadle) large area of Honduran r ainforest original forest cover remains in

8 COT/NGA 10 Neotropical News

thought to be ready to migrate. In contrast, 18 on 5 May at Panaquatira beach (with a mean weight of 140. l g) were not considered to be ready to continue their migration. If this area is an aclclitional staging post for Reel Knot then its conserva­ tion is obviously of vital importance for the species. Wade r Study Group Bulletin 85:41-45, 1998

Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus (Charles Gambill) Atlantic forest to gain protection western Ecuador and the NGO enables 60% of income from There is optimism among Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica tourism to fund management of conservationists that Brazil's first de Intag is appealing for support the Park and Marine Reserve and national law protecting the to lobby the Ecuadorian to provide finances for environ­ Atlantic rainforest will be upheld, government and force a rethink. mental management rather than securing 95,000 km 2 of this · Oryx 32 (2): 105, 1998 development. unique habitat along the · Oryx 32 (2): 104, 1998 country's east coast. Logging and Galapagos Penguins may be development have already threatened by more frequent El BRAZIL destroyed more than 90% of Nino events Shorebirds on the north-central original habitat and the proposed A recent paper by P. Dee coast of Brazil in April-May law will promote regeneration Boersma relating Galapagos 1997 and sustainable use, while Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus The north-central coast of Brazil criminalising illegal logging. population dynamics to El Nili.o is important for wintering and • Oryx 32 (2): 105, 1998 events and associated ocean migrant shorebirds. A survey in warming, concludes that the January 1986 by James Wilson, ARGENTINA species may be threatened by Augusto Rodrigues and Doris Magellanic Pengiun migration global climate warming and more Graham counted a total of followed by satellite tracking frequent El Ni 1'io events. The 330,000 shorebirds on this Four male Magellanic Penguins current population is probably section of coast, including 8,000 Spheniscus magellanicus were 4,250- 8,500 birds, approximately Reel Knot Calidris canutus rnfa, tracked by David Stokes and P. half of the total in the early the only significant population of Dee Boersma from their breeding 1970s. The population fell sharply this species north of the main colony at Punta Tombo, Chubut, following the 1982-1983 El Nino wintering areas in Tierra de! for up to six weeks. All four and has been slowly recovering Fuego and Patagonia. The moved north-east along the coast; since then. The penguins' body present survey studied Reel Knot three had travelled 800 km from weight is enhanced by cold water on their northbound migration the colony when signals ceased. conditions (La Nina) and through this area, as it was This suggests that birds from this deteriorates during the warm consiclerecl that this area could be water conditions of El Nino. Thus, an important staging area for the increased warm water conditions species on its northward around the Galapagos are likely migration. At present, the to have a detrimental effect on northernmost major staging area the penguins and could threaten in South America is at Lagoa do the population because of its Peixe in southern Brazil, 8,300 small size and restricted km from Delaware Bay, the only distribution. known large staging area in • Condor 100: 245-253, 1998 North America. If birds flew this distance non-stop, it would be the Increased funding for Galapagos longest non-stop flight of any Islands lanclbircl in the world. A total of The Ecuadorian government has 335 Reel Knot on 30 April 1997, at Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus clraftecl a 'Special Law' which Maiai'.t Island, were very fat and (Charles Gambill)

9 COTINGA 10 Taxonomic Round-up

colony may perform a round-trip endangered). The grasslands FALKLAND ISLANDS winter migration of up to several originally covered 12,000 km" but Gentoo and Rockhopper thousand kilometres. Initially the 18,000 ha were planted with Penguins decline, while King birds moved rapidly and made pines and Eucalyptus in 1997 Penguins increase few deep di ves. Later their travel alone. Breeding populations of these rate decreased, their routes • Oryx 32: 188, 1998 three species were ce nsused in became more erratic and they 1995-96 by Mike Bingha m. made more deep dives; all Hybrid birds discover ed in Rio Results indicate that Gentoo indicative of foraging behaviour. Negro Penguin Pygoscelis papua has This suggests that the penguins' Two intergeneric hybrids declined by 43% since a similar winter migration may be between Yellow Cardinal census in 1932-33, while determined by seasonal Guben w trix cristata and Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes move ment of their prey a nd it Common Diuca Finch Diuca chrysocom.e chrysoco me has also confirms the importance of diuca minor were captured in declined by 90% in the same controlling oil pollution (cur­ eastern Rio Negro province, period. More recent monitoring rently a major contributor to where the two species are studies indicate that these Magellanic Penguin mortality) sympatric. Other hybrids have declines continue, which is along this stretch of coast. been reported from south-east La particularly significant give that • Condor 100: 376-381, 1998 Pampa province and it is beli eved the archipelago holds the world's that hybridisation may occ ur due la rgest breeding colonies of Grassland birds t hreat ened by to the capture of more male tha n Roc khopper Penguin and the plantations fe male Yellow Cardinals for the second largest colonies of Gentoo The native grasslands of illegal cagebir d trade. The Penguin. It is thought that these Corrientes province in the north ­ hybrids are vi able, although the declines have been caused by east of the country are under degree of fertility is unknown. cha nges in the marine, rather threat from the rapidly increas­ Yellow Cardinal is a threatened tha n the terrestrial, environment, ing pine and Eucalyptus species and the effect of although they are not fu lly plantations established to meet widespread hybridisation understood. increased demand for cheap between these two species needs In contrast, the King Penguin paper. No reserves exist in these to be ascertained. It is also Aptenodytes patagonicu.s colony grasslands, which are habitat for important, of course, to try a nd now numbers 400 pairs, an seven globally threatened birds prevent the taking of Yellow increase of 700% over its (including Ochre-breasted Pipit Cardinals from the wild fo r this population in 1980-81, a nd in Anthu.s nattereri and Saffron­ illegal trade. line with the recent worldwide cowled Blackbird Xanthopsar • Oryx 32: 188, 1998 increase in numbers of this flavus, which are both considered species. • Oryx 32: 223-232, 1998

10 C o t i n g a 1 1 N eotropical N ew s Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN possibly caused confusion and bonariensis, a brood parasite, has biased the results. reached the Yucatán peninsula. BAHAMAS Such opposing hypotheses may The species has spread from More on Kirtland’s W arbler only confuse the establishment of South America through the West wintering habitat suitable management practices Indies, where it has had a Two analyses of habitat use by for this enigmatic migrant on its detrimental effect on several, the threatened Kirtland’s Warbler wintering grounds. single-island endemics. There are Dendroica kirtlandii on its • Skimmer 6 (5): 1 & 8, 1998; fears that it may pose a similar Bahamian wintering grounds Condor 100: 201–217, 1998; problem to the 20 bird species have come to quite different Wilson Bulletin 110: 244–261, restricted to the Yucatán conclusions. A study by Haney et 1998. peninsula coastal scrub Endemic al. (summarised in Cotinga 10: 8) Bird Area. examined winter records from CENTRAL AMERICA • Wilson Bulletin 110: 429–430, 1841–1997, concluding that 1998. Kirtland’s Warbler is dependent MEXICO on pine forest in the Bahamas. Bearded W ood-Partridge New information on Spotted The authors noted that the discovered in Querétaro O w ls breeding population of the species Bearded Wood-partridge Recent research in the Sierra declined most rapidly during a Dendrortyx barbatus is a critically Madre Occidental on the Mexican period when breeding habitat was endangered Mexican endemic, subspecies, lucida, of the Spotted unaffected and the native pine threatened by habitat destruction Owl Strix occidentalis has forests of the Bahamas had been and hunting, that occurs in the provided new information on the severely disturbed by logging. states of San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, species’ population density and They also noted that the Puebla and Veracruz (with recent roosting habits. The mean subsequent recovery in breeding records only from Hidalgo and population density (0.09 owl per numbers has coincided with the Veracruz). No more than 1000 square km) is approximately half regeneration of pine forests in the birds are thought to remain. A that reported in Arizona and New Bahamas. survey in July 1998 by Jack Mexico. Seventy percent of owls A second study, by Sykes & Eitniear, Alvaro Aragon Tapia, roosted in medium-sized trees, Clench, concentrated on detailed Victor Gonzalez and John Baccus although this was thought to have observations of two individual has determined the presence of a been a result of the paucity of birds and concluded that small population in the newly mature and old growth forest in Kirtland’s Warblers do use scrub established Reserva de la the study area. Spotted Owl roost habitat in the Bahamas, as had Biosfera Sierra Gorda in north­ sites had steeper slopes, more been previously thought. The two east Querétaro, providing the first canopy layers, greater canopy individuals foraged in scrub close confirmed records for the state. At closure and greater live tree basal to the ground, rarely venturing least 21 birds were recorded at area than random sites. The more than 3 m up. They noted three different locations researchers concluded that that there is plenty of unused (including five groups of calling management objectives should scrub habitat in the Bahamas and birds). The authors consider that promote increasing canopy that Kirtland’s Warblers are an undiscovered population may closure and understorey diversity widely and evenly spread through exist in a large area of virtually to improve habitats for Spotted the Bahamas; therefore any inaccessible habitat in adjacent Owls. current population limits are San Luis Potosí. The species • Condor 100: 732–736, 1998. likely to be determined by occurs in humid, montane pine- conditions on the breeding oak cloud forests, but has also Sierra Madre Occidental grounds. Furthermore, they been recorded from older second- p r o t e c t e d questioned the apparent growth forests and forest edge Ten thousand hectares of El concentration of records in pine cultivation. Further details will Carricito, including old growth habitat, noting that the local appear in Cotinga 12. forest in the Sierra Madre endemic race of Yellow-throated • PQF News 12: 4–6, 1998 Occidental, has been declared as a Warbler Dendroica dominica Conservation Area by local flavescens is sufficiently similar to Parasitic cowbird threatens communities. In October 1998, Kirtland’s Warbler to have Yucatán endemics more than 1,000 members of the Shiny Cowbird Molothrus huichola community of San

8 C o t i n g a 1 1 N eotropical News

Sebastián Teponahuaxtián and PANAMA SOUTH AMERICA the nearby village of Tuxpan de Plans for sustainable develop­ Bolaños voted unanimously to m ent of Darién BOLIVIA give the area protected status. A sustainable development Forest habitat threatened by This excellent initiative follows project is planned for Panama’s d a m s three years of community-based Darién province. The Darién Four proposed dam projects in work by CIPAMEX, the Birdlife National Park was declared a Bolivia will flood large areas of International representative in World Heritage Site in 1981 and a forest and affect river flow Mexico. The site is Mexico’s first Man and Biosphere Reserve two downstream. The Caipipendi Important Bird Area, and years later, in recognition of the Project is a tri-national venture supports threatened species such site where two continents (and (with Paraguay and Argentina) as Thick-billed Parrot their respective flora and faunal designed to regulate the flow of Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha and first met 2.5 million years ago. the Rio Pilcomayo by building a Tufted Jay Cyanocorax dickeyi. Darién province has the highest dam in the Bolivian highlands at • BirdLife in the Americas 3 (3): level of poverty and the highest Caipipendi. The project came to 3–4 deforestation rate in Panama. light two years ago and met fierce Although 41% of the province is opposition from indigenous protected on paper and another people. It was thought that this 26% comprises indigenous had resulted in the indefinite peoples’ territories, the bounda­ postponement of the project, but ries are poorly defined and there are renewed fears that it frequently ignored. The project may in fact proceed. The Rio hopes to bring order to what is Pilcomayo already suffers from currently a chaotic process of siltation (due to deforestation) settlement and economic and heavy metal contamination (a exploitation, and includes result of mining activities); the measures to more clearly project aims to address these demarcate protected areas and problems. However, it will also indigenous territories. The flood large areas of indigenous project will be developed in peoples’ territories, restrict their consultation with all involved traditional access to hunting and local groups. Controversially, the fishing areas, and damage forest project includes rebuilding a road and river ecosystems. through the centre of the The Bermejo Basin project province, which extends half way involves two dams on the Río

Imperial W oodpecker Campephilus to the Colombian border. The road Bermejo and one on the Río im perialis (J. Fjeldså) will inevitably accelerate the Tarija; consortia from Europe, development process: most local North and South America are inhabitants support the bidding for the construction C O S T A R I C A rebuilding process, although there contract. The Argentine First nesting Jabiru in Alajuela remain concerns at the potential government is planning to p r o v in c e environmental impact. provide half the funding. The An active nest found in March • IDBAMERICA, July–August project aims to provide clean 1995 along the Río Frio 1998 drinking water and ‘clean’ energy represents the first Jabiru Jabiru for one of Argentina’s poorest mycteria breeding record in the areas. Conservation organisa­ Los Guatuzos plain, Alajuela tions, including World Wide Fund province, in the north of the for Nature, Greenpeace and country. The only previous Costa BirdLife International partners, Rican breeding records were from are lobbying against construction, the Tempisque basin, Guanacaste fearing that the project will flood province, in the north-west. The a large area of Yungas forest, nest lies in unprotected land including that in two national outside the Caño Negro Wildlife parks. Refuge, and active lumbering is • Reuters, 1998; BirdLife in the underway. The species may be Americas 3 (3): 7. spreading in Central America: breeding is now known from BRAZIL Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, N ew sites for Tail-grass Honduras, Nicaragua. W etland Tapaculo • Colonial Waterbirds 21: 256– The recently discovered Tail-grass 257. Ja b iru Jabiru mycteria (C. Gambill) Wetland Tapaculo Scytalopus

9 C o tin g a 11 N eotropical News

iraiensis has been found at several with 45 596 individual fires one environmental protection new sites in Paraná state and one detected. Most of the fires are area. In total, these cover almost location in adjacent Santa deliberately ignited by subsist­ 2 million ha. The largest Catarina. Although this offers ence farmers and cattle ranchers protected area covers 640 000 ha hope for the species’ conservation, with the intention of clearing old of Amazonian forest in the state the population still appears pasture and burning newly cut of Pará. One of the other new extremely small and confined to forest, but many spread out of reserves lies near the Reserva areas under threat from control, often starting new, Chico Mendes, adjacent to the development and agriculture. accidental fires. The increase is Bolivian border, and two national • NEOORN E-mail news group; thought to be partly due to low parks cover important remnants World Birdwatch 20: 5. rainfall, a continuing effect of El of Atlantic forest. It remains to be Niño. One of the fires threatened seen whether these will achieve Release of deforestation to engulf Xingu National Park, more than ‘paper park’ status. s ta tis tic s which is home to 5000 people • BirdLife in the Americas 3(3): In February 1999, the Brazilian belonging to 17 different tribes, 5. government released the latest until rains extinguished it. The figures for deforestation in government has implemented CHILE Amazonia, based on satellite emergency measures to fight the Threat to Mejillones Bay images. In 1997, 13 277 km2 were fires, with a loan from the World A large-scale infrastructure cleared, a reduction from the 1996 Bank, but environmentalists fear project is planned at Mejillones figure of 18 161 km2. Figures for that these may have come too Bay in the north of the country. 1998 are unavailable, but late. Conservationists are concerned deforestation is estimated to have • Environmental Defence Fund, that the Environmental Impact risen slightly to c. 17 000 km2, October 1998 Assessment conducted by the partially as a result of the fires in construction company, Roraima state that have burnt an Governm ent slashes funds for Megapuerto Mejillones, is estimated 11 700 km2 (see next fo r e s ts inadequate. Mejillones Bay is a item). In 1995–96, most Under pressure from the candidate Important Bird Area, deforestation occurred in small International Monetary Fund to holding a colony of Peruvian areas of under 50 ha, and was reduce its spending, the Brazilian Terns Sterna lorata; the attributed to smallholders government has slashed funds for endangered Peruvian Diving- clearing land for settlement. In a £152 million project to save the petrel Pelecanoides garnotii has 1997–98 most removal occurred Amazonian rainforest. The project also been recorded. in areas larger than 200 ha. It is had been backed by the Group of • BirdLife in the Americas 3 (3): 1. thought that the upturn in the Seven leading industrial Brazilian economy increased countries, with Brazil to provide investment in logging and 10% of the cost. Environmental­ agricultural projects, explaining ists have warned that without the larger size of clearances. To Brazil’s participation, the date, 532 000 km2 have been contributing countries may cleared in Amazonia: an area withhold funds. The programme slightly smaller than France. The pays for forest surveys and Environment Minister reported delimiting 100 000 km2 for that the World Bank is funding a indigenous peoples’ reservations. $1 million study of the causes of Under an agreement with the deforestation, and that IBAMA International Monetary Fund, the would increase efforts to curb government has reduced its illegal felling. environmental spending by two- • Brazilian government state­ thirds. ment, 10 February 1999; The • The Guardian, 2 January 1999. Peruvian Diving-Petrel Pelecanoides garnotii Express, 12 February 1999; (J. Fjeldså) New York Times, 13 September Nine new protected areas 1998. d e s ig n a te d The previous item notwithstand­ COLOMBIA Am azonian fires burn out of ing, the government of Brazil has Discovery of Yellow-eared c o n t r o l demonstrated increasing Parrot colony According to data gathered by commitment to biodiversity On 18 April 1999, the Proyecto weather satellites over Brazilian conservation by declaring nine Ognorhynchus field director Amazonia, the number of fires new protected areas across the Bernabé López-Lanús discovered detected during the period June- country. President Cardoso signed two flocks of 31 and 30 Yellow­ August 1998 was 86% higher than decrees declaring five new eared Parrot Ognorhynchus during the same period in 1997, national parks, three reserves and icterotis in the Cordillera Central.

1 0 C o t i n g a 1 1 N eotropical N ews

During 24–28 April 1999, the two would greatly boost conservation for such construction projects — yet flocks were observed daily, with all of the area’s threatened birds. pylons are to be sited next to their 61 birds roosting together in wax Cerro Blanco’s tropical dry villages. In August–September palms. An active nest site was forest is situated in the heart of 1998, more than 1200 Indians located in a dead palm trank and the Tumbesian Endemic Bird from four different tribes blocked contained one or more fledglings. Area, and is home to nine globally the road into the Canaima Local campesinos provided an threatened species (for details see National Park to prevent the extensive list of tree species that Cotinga 8: 59–63): Rufous-headed entry of construction workers, and the species feeds on, including Chachalaca Ortalis erythroptera, called for dialogue with the palm fruits as well as various other Grey-backed Hawk Leucopternis government. The National Guard tree fruits present in the area. occidentalis, Ochre-bellied Dove was dispatched to the area and Video footage, photographs and Leptotila ochraceiventris, Great reportedly used tear gas, rubber sound recordings have been taken. Green Macaw Ara ambigua, bullets and tanks to disperse the Long-term conservation plans are Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaner protesters. There are concerns being drawn up presently. Local Hylocryptus erythrocephalus, that electricity from the powerline cooperation and enthusiasm for the Blackish-headed Spinetail will help expand the already project is extremely encouraging Synallaxis tithys, Grey-breasted increasing open-cast gold-mining and suggests that long-term Flycatcher Lathrotriccus in Venezuela’s forests. progress will be rewarding and griseipectus, Pacific Royal • BBC Wildlife 16 (11): 32. constructive. Flycatcher Onychorhynchus • Paul Salaman in litt. May 1999 occidentalis and Saffron Siskin Carduelis siemiradzkii. ECUADOR • World Birdwatch 20: 4. Second Im portant Bird Area for Ecuador VENEZUELA The Bosque Protector Cerro Electricity powerline to cut Blanco (Cerro Blanco Protected through protected areas Forest) near Guayaquil has been Local communities are protesting designated Ecuador’s second against the construction of Important Bird Area (IBA). At a electricity powerlines through ceremony on 19 June 1998, Cecilia their forest home. The Venezuelan Pacheco, President of the government has agreed to supply Fundación Ornitológica del electricity to the Brazilian state of

Ecuador (CECIA), and Diego Roraima. To do this, the Roraiman Antwren Herpsilochmus roraimae Benalcazar, Executive Director of government has commissioned the (D. Beadle) the Fundación Pro-Bosque, signed construction of a 1650 km a formal agreement to manage the powerline costing £73 million. protected forest as an IBA. Cerro This will cut a 218 km swathe Blanco is owned by the company through the forests of Canaima Cemento Nacional and managed National Park — a UNESCO World by the Fundación Pro-Bosque. Eric Heritage Site — and the Imataca Horstman, Administrative Forest Reserve. Local inhabitants Director of Cerro Blanco, say they were not consulted about commented that the designation the project — a legal requirement

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Neotropical News

PAN-AMERICAN Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus, trees. The species is restricted to Brown Sula leucogaster and 1450 km2 in the Guadeloupe Second Pan-American Masked Boobies S. dactylatra islands and is the only resident Roundtable talks planned (species of special concern). The woodpecker in the Lesser Antilles. Following on from the first Texas-based developer— Beal The estimated population is Partners in Flight Pan American Aerospace — has pledged to c. 10 000 pairs, but it is unevenly Roundtable, a second meeting was establish a seabird sanctuary distributed in forest habitats from due to take place on 17 June 1999 within 322 km of Sombrero and if sea-level to the treeline (c. 1000 to discuss, among other matters, necessary, sponsor a seabird­ m). Hurricane damage is a bird conservation strategies in breeding programme, while at the significant threat, but Latin America and the Caribbean, same time arguing that the infrastructure changes, such as information-sharing among effects on seabirds and other road construction and airport conservation groups and wildlife would be minimal. enlargement, are considered conservation issues in the According to environmentalists, greater threats to this vulnerable Caribbean. the proposed launch site would bird. • Bird Calls (The Newsletter of effectively destroy all seabird • Orn. Neotropical 9: 121–128, the American Bird nesting habitat on the island. In 1998. Conservancy Policy Council) 3 addition, the dock that Beal (1), 1999 Aerospace is pressing for CENTRAL AMERICA permission to build would render Conservation Counterparts the island susceptible to the MEXICO program m e launched in US accidental introduction of New protection for Mexican The American Bird Conservancy mammalian predators such as fo r e s ts has launched a new programme, rats. Mexico’s president has announced entitled Conservation Counter­ • Bird Calls (The Newsletter of plans to protect fire-affected parts, to promote collaboration the American Bird forests throughout much of between conservation groups in Conservancy Policy Council) 3 Mexico. In the first half of 1998 North America, Latin America (1), 1999. c. 2000 km2 of forest was burned, and the Caribbean. principally as a result of ‘slash- • Bird Calls (The Newsletter of and-burn’ agriculture, although in the American Bird some cases it is thought that fires Conservancy Policy Council) 3 were started simply to provoke (1), 1999 changes in land use. The new plan identifies 85 priority forests, CARIBBEAN covering 1880 km2 in 21 states, as Sites of Ecological Restoration LESSER ANTILLES and makes changes in land use Fight against rocket launch illegal in these areas. site on Som brero Island Furthermore, the Ministry of the The American Bird Conservancy Environment will develop and (ABC) and the Royal Society for implement forest recovery plans the Protection of Birds (RSPB) are for each area. seeking to prevent the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster • Oryx 33: 105, 1999 development of a rocket launch (Marcus England) site on Sombrero Island, 56 km BELIZE Belize accedes to the Ramsar north-west of Anguilla in the GUADELOUPE C o n v e n tio n Lesser Antilles. The island is Endemic woodpecker under uninhabited but for five Belize acceded to the Ramsar t h r e a t lighthouse keepers and, more Convention on Wetlands on 22 Recent fieldwork, by Pascal August 1998. The first designated importantly, is free from Villard and Alain Rosteau, has mammalian predators. Among the Ramsar sites were Crooked Tree demonstrated that Guadeloupe Lagoon Area and Mexico and nesting bird species are Roseate Woodpecker Melanerpes Sterna dougallii and Least Terns Jones Lagoon Area. Both are herminieri is threatened by clear- wetlands of international sig­ S. antillarum, which are classified cutting and the removal of dead as endangered, and Red-billed nificance. The former comprises

7 Cotinga 12 Neotropical News swamp forest, humid tropical EL SALVADOR amphibians and reptiles on forest, and freshwater lagoons Avian diversity assessed several continents since the and marshes and was identified El Salvador has been rarely 1980s. The study also found that by BirdLife International as a studied by ornithologists, but a 15 bird species formerly restricted Key Area for threatened birds. In recent paper by Oliver Komar to lower altitude forest, including addition to important summarises the characteristics of Keel-billed Toucan Ramphastos concentrations of wildfowl, a roost the country’s avifauna. Of 508 sulfuratus, have recently of the threatened Yellow-headed species recorded, 310 are breeding colonised high altitude cloud Amazon Amazona oratrix was residents. Seventeen species are forests. Within Costa Rican cloud discovered there in 1992. endemic to the highlands of forests, these changes are linked • The Ramsar Newsletter 28: 6, northern Central America and to a reduction in dry-season mist 1999. one is endemic to its Pacific slope in the mountains since the mid- lowlands. Approximately 270 1970s. Overall, cloud cover is GUATEMALA species are habitat specialists unchanged but the number of dry New inform ation on the with highly restricted national days has increased and clouds Ocellated Turkey ranges. Some 117 species are in and mist now form higher in the Fieldwork in Tikal National Park, danger of extinction at national mountains than previously. It is El Petén state, has revealed level; three are already locally considered that this may important information on extinct. The author concludes that particularly effect amphibians by Ocellated Turkey Meleagris further fieldwork is needed in the reducing their resistance to ocellata ecology. Little was country. parasites and disease, as well as previously known about this • Wilson Bull. 110: 511–533, by drying out their habitat. spectacular gamebird, which is 1998. • BBC Wildlife 17 (6): 57, 1999 restricted to the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, northern C O S T A R IC A PANAMA Belize and northern Guatemala. A Global warm ing affecting US Departm ent of Defence to team, led by Maria José Gonzalez cloud forest wildlife leave Panama of the Wildlife Conservation New research in Costa Rica has Under the terms of the Panama Society, used radiotelemetry to provided one of the strongest Canal Treaty of 1977, the 32 388 study the species’ habitat use, links yet between climatic change ha occupied by the US army, navy breeding behaviour and survival. and its effect on wildlife. Alan and air force bases are to be Ocellated Turkeys utilise tall Pounds, Michael Fogden and John returned to Panamanian control forest cover to care for their Campbell of the Monteverde by the end of 1999. The US poults, and forest clearings and Cloud Forest Preserve and Department of Defence has been other vegetation types during Tropical Science Centre used instrumental in protecting large courtship and mating. Radio- temperature, rainfall and wildlife areas of rainforest under its collared females travelled up to 8 survey data to establish a link control, and has helped document km (mean 2.4 km) from the point between weather patterns during the importance of these areas for of capture in search of nesting 1973–1998 and changes in the resident and migratory birds sites. Nesting success in eight distribution of many cloud forest through its Partners in Flight hens was 62% and poult survival species. In particular, this project. It is hoped that the rate was 15%. The largest home includes the disappearance of 20 Panamanian authorities will range recorded for a female with amphibian species in 1987 and is continue to protect these areas, poults was 12.5 km2. indicative that global climate but development pressure is • Wilson Bull. 110: 505–510, change may be responsible for the intense and some areas have 1998. catastrophic decline of already been drained and developed. • Bird Calls (The Newsletter of the American Bird Conservancy Policy Council) 3 (1), 1999

Harpy Eagle release Four captive-bred Harpy Eagles Harpia harpyja were released in 1998 into Soberania National Park. This is the first time captive birds have been released into the wild. The birds were hatched and raised in the USA, two at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for

Ocellated Turkey M eleagris ocellata (Charles Gambill) Birds of Prey in Idaho and two at

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San Diego Zoo. In 1997, just nine Am azon loggers under closer developed by scientists from pairs were thought to remain in s c r u tin y Embrapa, the government Panama. Environment Minister José agricultural research centre near • International Zoo News 45: Sarney Filho has promised to ‘get Rio de Janeiro. The team 373–374,1999. tough’ on illegal loggers in the discovered that implanting Amazon. He raised the IBAMA nitrogen-fixing bacteria into tree SOUTH AMERICA budget by c. US$4 million to seeds accelerates the growth of increase inspection activities and newly planted trees. A similar VENEZUELA has strengthened the 1998 technique is used widely in Brazil Forests opened up to mining Environmental Crimes Act to to promote the growth of soya and logging permit IBAMA to impose beans. The team is concentrating In defiance of its own increased fines. Filho asserted its efforts on encouraging small environmental laws, the that his government ‘cannot landowners from the Atlantic Venezuelan government is continue to allow the devastation forest region to adopt the planning to open up the of our Amazon forest by technology. (previously protected) Guyana individuals who only think of easy • New Scientist 1 May 1999: 14. Shield region to logging and profits’. mining on a large scale. The • O Estado do São Paulo One National Park extended … Guyana Shield region has been Website, 15 April 1999 Ilha do Superagüi National Park identified as one of the last in Paraná state has been remaining large blocks of frontier Am azon increasingly degraded extended from 21 400 to 34 254 ha forest and includes the Imataca Current estimates of annual to include the north of the island Forest reserve, Canaima National deforestation in the Brazilian and its entire eastern coast. Park and a UNESCO World Amazon identify less than 50% of Superagüi is threatened by land Heritage Site. The 36 450 km2 the forest area actually degraded speculators along its coastline, Imataca Forest Reserve will be each year, and even less during and the increased protected area particularly hard hit as Canadian severe droughts. A team led by was considered essential for the and Venezuelan companies are Daniel Nepstad of Woods Hole survival of the Black-faced Lion planning to build South America’s Research Center, USA, undertook Tamarin monkey Leontopithecus largest gold-mining complex ground-based surveys of wood caissara. An extension of the park there. mills and forest burning across boundary was previously • Oryx 33: 106, 1999 the region. This demonstrated proposed by ICBP (now BirdLife that logging crews severely International) in its 1992 FRENCH GUIANA damage 10–15 000 km2 of forest Americas Red Data Book. The National park created per year that is not revealed by park holds three threatened bird The French prime minister has satellite deforestation mapping species: Red-tailed Amazon announced plans to create a programmes. Satellites fail to Amazona brasiliensis, Black­ national park in French Guiana detect human activity that headed Berryeater Carpornis covering 1000s of hectares by reduces, but does not eliminate, melanocephalus and Buffy-fronted 2000. It is to be run in co­ tree cover. Seedeater Sporophila frontalis. operation with Brazil and may be The team also discovered that The principal habitat is sand- used to facilitate research to help surface fires burn additional large plain forest. preserve Amazon forest. areas of standing forests, which • Neotropical Primates 6: 51, • Oryx 33: 106, 1999 are more vulnerable during 1999. severe droughts. It is estimated BRAZIL that 270 000 km2 of forest became … but perhaps they’re all just IBAM A bans mahogany vulnerable to fire during the 1998 ‘paper parks’ anyway extraction in south Pará El Niño-enhanced dry season. To Three-quarters of Brazil’s most In October 1998, IBAMA control such forest degradation, it highly protected conservation suspended permits to extract, is recommended that logging areas exist only on paper or lack improve, sell and transport activities be restricted or replaced the full protection established by mahogany in southern Pará. with low-impact timber harvest law, according to a new report IBAMA will attempt to survey the techniques, and more effective from the Worldwide Fund for mahogany stock in the state, strategies be implemented to Nature. Brazil has 86 national investigating relevant companies’ prevent accidental forest fires. parks, biological reserves, management plans and extraction • Nature 398: 505–508, 1999. ecological reserves and ecological concessions. This could be a research stations, but 47 are significant step forward in Forest fixed ‘below the minimum level of curbing deforestation. Part of the Amazon forest implementation’ and just seven • O Estado do São Paulo destroyed by mining has been fully comply with federal Website, 29 October 1998 restored to dense forest in just requirements. Protected areas two years due to a technique may occupy 1.85% of Brazil’s land

9 Cotinga 12 Neotropical News area, but the genuine on-the- Red-legged Cormorant FALKLAND ISLANDS ground figure is a dismal 0.4%. Phalacrocorax gaimardi and Striated Caracara population • BBC Wildlife, May 1999. Peruvian Booby Sula variegata) reduced to 500 pairs occur. Also found offshore are the A two-year survey by Falklands ECUADOR poorly known Markham’s Storm- Conservation has concluded that W aved Albatross increase petrel Oceanodroma markhami the population of Striated In 1994 a complete census of the and endangered Peruvian Diving- Caracara Phalcoboenus australis Waved Albatross Phoebastria petrel Pelecanoides garnotii. At in the islands is now no more irrorata at Isla Española, the least, the development than 500 pairs and that this Galápagos Islands, estimated the threatens to disturb the Peruvian constitutes a significant world population to be at least Tern colony and feeding seabirds. proportion of the world population 18 200 breeding pairs. This • BirdLife in the Americas 3(3), of this species, which was afforded represented a 52% increase over November 1998. Near-threatened status by the 1971 estimate of 12 000 pairs. BirdLife International in 1994. During the period, two coastal Striated Caracara was formerly colonies increased by 138% and very numerous in the Falklands, 335%, one coastal colony but has been heavily persecuted remained stable, and two small due to its perceived threat to inland colonies disappeared. sheep-farming. In the early part Despite the overall population of this century bounties were paid increase, the spatial extent of for the bird and it was extirpated colonies decreased as a result of from many inhabited islands. The vegetation regeneration following study discovered that on Bird the eradication of feral goats. Island the main prey in the Wandering Albatross is the only breeding season was Thin-billed albatross that breeds in the Prion Pachyptila belcheri. equatorial zone, and has the most Although now breeding restricted breeding and pelagic principally on remote uninhabited distribution of any albatross. islands, non-breeding immatures Nearly the entire world Peruvian Diving-petrel Pelecanoides garnotii wander to settled islands and will population nests on Isla by Jon Fjeldså take weak / sickly sheep and Española, with just a handful of lambs as well as scavenging. pairs at Isla de la Plata off Thus, conflict still exists between mainland Ecuador. ARGENTINA the species and sheep farmers, • Condor 100: 737–740, 1999. Penguins on the move and some persecution continues. Satellite-tracking of Magellanic This is now considered to be the CHILE Spheniscus magellanicus and major threat to the survival of the Megaport development Rockhopper Penguins Eudyptes species and the two-year study threatens seabirds chrysocome breeding on the recently completed will provide An important area for seabirds is Falkland Islands has revealed baseline data for a long-term threatened by Chilean that, after moulting, the former monitoring programme. government plans to build move c. 1800 km north-west to • The Warrah 15: 2–3, 1999. Megapuerto Mejillones, a large- coastal waters off the South scale infrastructure project. The American continent. Rockhoppers, beaches of Mejillones Bay host in contrast, are more sedentary. large concentrations of migrant The study forms part of a plan to shorebirds, Grey Gull Larus generate additional information modestas and terns. Adjacent concerning the Falklands offshore dunes support a breeding colony ecosystem, a priority in view of of Peruvian Terns Sterna lorata, a current hydrocarbon explorations. Humboldt Current endemic. Both species may be affected by Offshore, large feeding flocks of activities in the northern tranche species characteristic of the areas licensed for exploration. Humboldt Current (e.g. Humboldt • The Warrah 14: 6–7, 1999 Penguin Spheniscus humboldti,

10 Cotinga 13 Neotropical News

NORTH AMERICA people out of Grayling, Michigan. and the southern goldmani either Providing funds continue to flow, Endangered or Vulnerable. UNITED STATES Kirtland’s Warbler’s short-term Belding’s Yellowthroat is patchily Management helps Kirtland’s future looks healthy. distributed and has disappeared Warbler reach new high • Bird Calls 3 (2), 1999 from three historical sites. It has The population of Kirtland’s restricted habitat preferences, Warbler Dendroica kirtlandii has CARIBBEAN being confined to the fringe reached a new high, with 905 vegetation of freshwater oases. singing males in 1999. The LESSER ANTILLES The main threats to this habitat continued increase (see e.g. Continuing fight against are cutting of reed grass for rural Cotinga 9: 8) is thought to be due rocket launch on Sombrero home construction, burning to careful management practices, Island vegetation, opening trails for unanticipated early colonisation In Cotinga 12 (12: 7) we reported cattle, overgrazing of reed grass of young jack pine plantations, on the fight by the American Bird and using the water for and the species’ ability to occur at Conservancy (ABC) and Royal agriculture and tourism. The unexpectedly high densities. Society for the Protection of Birds researchers make three Managed habitat now supports (RSPB) to prevent the recommendations for the species’ 73% of singing males. development of a rocket launch conservation. They suggest Colonisation of four- and five- site on Sombrero Island, 56 km prohibiting burning and cutting of year-old pine stands is evident; it north-west of Anguilla. If water-edge vegetation; was previously believed that only completed, the site would destroy translocating birds from San Jose six-year-old stands were nesting grounds of seabirds such del Cabo to Santiago; and sufficiently mature. Males occur as Roseate Sterna dougallii and persuading golf course owners to at densities of one per 3 ha; Least Terns S. antillarum. Beal fund translocation of birds to densities of one male per 5 ha Aerospace of Texas, USA, has artificial water holes on their were envisaged, and recovery persuaded the Anguillan lands. plans allowed for one per 15–20 government that the rent and • Animal Conservation 2: 77–84, ha. Habitat projections suggest promise of jobs outweigh 1999 further modest warbler environmental concerns. RSPB population increases in the next has lobbied the UK government to SOUTH AMERICA three years. Meanwhile, the US reject the project. The UK has the Fish and Wildlife Service authority to review the project as VENEZUELA continues to counteract the threat Anguilla is a British Overseas Attempts to stop Dickcissel of brood parasitism: in 1999, 4400 Territory, and is expected to await decline Brown-headed Cowbirds the result of an environmental A mixed-sector coalition is Molothrus ater were removed impact assessment and a public attempting to halt the decline of from Kirtland’s Warbler sites. consultation before making a the Dickcissel Spiza americana. Ecotourism is also taking off: the decision. This passerine has declined by service provided free tours for 900 • Bird Calls 3 (2), 1999 40% since the 1960s, apparently as a result of pesticide poisoning CENTRAL AMERICA by Venezuelan farmers. With the cooperation of the rice and MEXICO sorghum farmers’ association, the Belding’s Yellowthroat at risk Venezuelan Ministry of Fieldwork, undertaken in 1995, Agriculture, Eco Natura, has led researchers to conclude Venezuelan Audubon (SCAV) and that Belding’s Yellowthroat Venezuelan academics, the Geothlypis beldingi is the most ‘Ricebird Alliance’ aims to reduce threatened passerine in Baja lethal control during the 1999- California. The species is already 2000 wintering season. The considered globally Vulnerable alliance will conduct field tests on and Ricardo Rodriguez-Estrella a non-toxic pest repellent, assess and co-workers consider that the the suitability of habitat Kirtland’s W arbler Dendroica kirtlandii nominate northern race beldingi management techniques, monitor (Dave Beadle should be categorised as Critical, patterns of crop damage and

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launch an information and ha of forest were lost during the launch of the Greenpeace sensitivity programme for five-year study period. Eighty-two campaign in June 1999. farmers. per cent of this was in the states • Greenpeace Business August/ • Bird Calls 3 (2), 1999 of Mato Grosso, Pará and September: 2, 1999 Rondônia. Eighty-six per cent was BRAZIL less than 25 km from areas ECUADOR New tapaculo habitat to be deforested by 1978 and 73% was Jatun Sacha threatened by flooded less than 50 km from the three road The World Bank has given the major road networks, so there The provincial government of green light for the type-locality of remains genuine cause for Napo is threatening to bulldoze a the Tail-grass Wetland Tapaculo concern. road through the Jatun Sacha Scytalopus iraiensis, discovered in • Internet at http:// biological station in the Paraná in 1997, to be flooded. www.dpi.inpe.br/dalves/ Ecuadorian Amazon. The road Construction work on a dam diogenes.html, 1999 will traverse 4 km of the 2,000 ha downstream of the rio Irai reserve, aiming to service five meadows was set to resume in Spix’s Macaw recovery project communities along the Arajuno November 1999. The World Bank encouraging and Puni rivers, both tributaries had halted the work and Recent news from the Spix’s of the río Napo. The Jatun Sacha commissioned surveys of Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii Foundation owns and manages additional populations. When recovery project is reasonably the reserve. It acknowledges the field workers located new sites, encouraging. The sole remaining importance of access for isolated the World Bank permitted wild bird has been paired with a communities but has requested construction to continue. The female Blue-winged Macaw Ara that the provincial government Bank states that mitigation maracana for several years. In first complete an unfinished road actions will include continued 1999, the pair raised their first through Quisacocha before management of an existing young, albeit as foster parents. attempting fresh construction in a protected area with 160 tapaculos, Their own eggs were replaced biologically important area. The and the purchase and protection with wooden eggs, which were Jatun Sacha reserve holds 120 of an additional site with 14 then replaced by two three-day mammal species, 800 butterflies tapaculos. An attempt will old chicks taken from a nearby and more than 2000 plant reportedly be made to translocate Blue-winged Macaw nest. The species. The 540 bird species the 130 tapaculos from the new foster parents immediately include Military Macaw Ara flooded site. Other areas, started to feed the young, which militaris (Vulnerable), apparently more significant for fledged several weeks later. That Lanceolated Monklet the species, remain unprotected. the hybrid pair is able to foster Micromonacha lanceolata (Near- • Bird Calls 3(2), 1999 young opens up new possibilities threatened) and Upper for the recovery of Spix’s Macaw, Amazon-Napo lowlands endemics More figures on deforestation most likely the fostering of such as Brown Nunlet Nonnula In Cotinga 12, we summarised captive-bred pure Spix’s Macaw brunnea, Ochre-striped Antpitta research by the Wood Holes chicks. Grallaria dignissima, Golden­ Research Center, USA, on the • Cyanopsitta 52: 8–9, 1999 winged Tody-Flycatcher degradation of Amazonian forest. Todirostrum calopterum and Recent work by the Brazilian Greenpeace launches global Ecuadorian Cacique Cacicas Space Agency (INPE) sheds more campaign to save Amazon sclateri. The Foundation asks that disturbing light on the Greenpeace has launched its those who wish to protest against geographical patterns of largest ever global campaign — to the building of the road should deforestation in the Amazon in slow the decline of Brazil’s write to Dr Edison Chavez, 1991–1996. The good news is that Amazon forest. It aims to do this Provincial Government of Napo, most of the Brazilian Amazon through combating illegal logging Consejo Provincial de Napo, Tena, faces little short-term danger of by multinationals and through Ecuador (fax +593 6 887495). losing its forest and that farmers developing sustainable economic • Jatun Sacha Foundation press are concentrated close to roads alternatives to logging. Recent release, 2 September 1999 and in previously deforested surveys have revealed that areas. Deforestation remains loggers severely damage 10- BOLIVIA limited outside the so-called ‘arc 15 000 km2 of Amazon forest each Shell to put pipeline through of deforestation’, which runs along year (see Cotinga 12: 9). In tropical dry forest the southern and eastern edges of response, the Brazilian The oil company, Shell, is pressing the Amazon, and the area around Environment Minister José ahead with a 200 km gas pipeline the Trans-Amazonian Highway. Sarney Filho has promised to get that will scythe through an However, the INPE figures also tough on illegal loggers. He joined important large tract of primary reveal that more than 9 million President Cardoso to back the tropical dry forest in the 4 million ha Chiquitano forest in eastern

7 Cotinga 13 Neotropical News

Bolivia. Environmentalists have focused on the effects of believe that this £323 million pesticides on wildlife. In 1997- pipeline will create a ‘fire trail’ 1998, 500 Swainson’s Hawks opening up the forest to loggers, Buteo swainsoni were poisoned. hunters and developers. The But in 1998-1999, following Worldwide Fund for Nature widespread pressure on pesticide (WWF), which led calls to use, there were no reports of persuade the multinational to poisoning incidents. The reconsider, accused Shell of failing Argentine government and NGO to honour environmental pledges members of the partnership made in the wake of the instigated after the first massive company’s disastrous involvement Swainson’s Hawk kills (see in a pipeline in Nigeria. The Cotinga 9: 11-12) continue to forest also protects the watershed coordinate monitoring, of the Pantanal and holds educational and advocacy efforts. threatened species such as • Bird Calls 3 (2), 1999 Hyacinth Macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus. Shell says that it Oil spill in río de la Plata has agreed a mitigation package Swainson’s H aw k Buteo swainsoni A Liberian tanker carrying 30 000 worth £13 million and claims it is (Charles Gambill) tonnes of crude oil collided with a committed to working on the German container ship in the río project ‘in accordance with our de la Plata in January 1999. strict environmental principles’. ARGENTINA Attempts were made to minimise Environmental non­ Boost for Swainson’s Hawks the resulting 5000 × 100 m slick governmental organisations In June 1999, the Argentine near the town of Magdalena remain unconvinced and are government passed a bill between La Plata and Punto particularly concerned that the prohibiting the import, trade and Piedras. There are several US government has part-financed domestic use of the deadly protected areas in the region. the project in the belief that the pesticide monocrotophos. Species of conservation concern relevant forest is secondary. Businesses that sell the chemical likely to be affected include WWF’s own research indicates must declare amounts in stock Olrog’s Gull Larus atlanticus as that the forest is primary and and were given six months to sell well as the La Plata River Dolphin that the US Overseas Private them. End users were given an Pontoporia blainvillei. If the spill Investment Corporation (OPIC) is additional three months in which reaches coastal marshes, other thus contravening its own code of to use remaining products. The threatened species affected could practice, which prohibits it from total ban takes effect from 25 include Dot-winged Crake funding projects in primary forest. March 2000. The ban is in large Porzana spiloptera and Speckled The OPIC funding (£129 million) part due to five years of advocacy Crake Coturnicops notata. was crucial to the project’s and field monitoring efforts that • Oryx 33: 107, 1999 advancement. The pipeline will transport natural gas from Rio San Miguel in Bolivia to Cuiaba in Brazil. It will be buried a metre deep, but will involve a construction ‘corridor’ 30 m wide, reduced to 15 m upon completion. An environmental impact assessment commissioned by Shell’s partner in the project, the US company Enron, admitted that Chiquitano was a ‘single complex ecosystem which should be preserved at all costs’ and recommended that the pipeline be moved to Brazil, where it would cause ‘much less damage’. WWF have accused Shell of exhibiting a ‘reckless disregard for the conservation of a unique Olrog’s Gull Larus atlanticus (Jon Fjeldså) ecosystem in the name of corporate profitability’. • BBC Wildlife 17 (8): 58, 1999

8 Cotinga 14 Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN Brazilleto Mountain. This habitat GUATEMALA type holds several endemic birds More Ramsar sites ANGUILLA and is the last known site of the In September 1999, Guatemala Reprieve for Sombrero island endemic Jamaican iguana, an added Parque Nacional Laguna Previous issues of Cotinga (12: 7, endemic skink, two endemic del Tigre (nearly 290 000 ha) to 13: 6) have related the plans, by reptiles and an endemic frog. the Ramsar site Laguna del Tigre. Beal Aerospace of Texas, USA, to Another 16% of the land area This site had been designated on build a $250 million rocket­ comprises valuable wetlands and 26 June 1990 with an area of launching facility on Sombrero, mangroves, which support around 48 000 ha. There are signs that this may no numerous wildfowl, in addition to • Ramsar Newsletter 30: 4, 1999 longer proceed. Beal is reassessing 25% of the country’s human its proposal following an fishing community. The govern­ HONDURAS environmental review by British ment will delegate management of Ramsar’s 1000th site designated authorities (on behalf of Anguilla). the new protected area to a local In July 1999, the Honduran Beals’ own formal environmental NGO, probably the Caribbean government designated the assessment of the island found Coastal Area Management world’s 1000th Wetland of only two invertebrate species and Foundation (CCAM). CCAM has International Importance. The one lizard on the island. An already prepared a management new site, the Sistema de independent assessment revealed plan, accepted by the government, Humedales de la Zona Sur de 65 species of invertebrates, which calls for zonation of the Honduras, is a complex of seven including a dozen thought to be area into 28 special management coastal areas totalling nearly endemic, and two additional zones and empowers local 70 000 ha of the Golfo de Fonseca. species of lizards. Jim Stevenson, communities with sustainable Mangrove vegetation predomi­ of the UK’s Royal Society for the resource management. The nates and the site’s various Protection of Birds, commented managers will need to head off lagoons provide migration staging that ‘it is now clear that Sombrero powerful interests — private posts for many waterbirds. is a very special place of global entities are already eyeing the • Ramsar Newsletter 30: 1, 1999 importance’. Another researcher area for destructive and likened it to ‘a Galapagos in unsustainable activities such as S O U T H AM ERICA miniature’. Sombrero is an limestone mining, caustic soda important, almost predator-free manufacture and coal-fired power BOLIVIA nesting site for seabirds such as generation. Plan to reintroduce pet macaws Brown Sula leucogaster and • El Pitirre 12: 25–26, 1999 questioned Masked Boobies S. dactylatra, and A new initiative to reintroduce pet various species of terns Sterna CENTRAL AMERICA macaws from the US to an area of spp. forest near La Paz is raising • Bird Calls 4 (2), 2000 COSTA RICA concerns within the bird W etland conservation receives conservation community. The JAMAICA boost Macaw Landing Foundation is New large protected area In May 1999, Costa Rica establishing the project in designated designated two Ramsar wetlands. collaboration with the Bolivian The Jamaican government has The first is the 130 ha Manglar de government, which aims to build designated a new 1876 km2 Potrero Grande on the Santa an ecotourism lodge for visitors reserve, the Portland Bight Elena peninsula in Guanacaste who wish to see free-flying Protected Area. Covering both province. This site includes parrots. The reintroduced birds land and sea, the site is Jamaica’s intertidal forests, intertidal will apparently include four largest protected area, and covers marshes, shallow marine waters hybrids, as well as the threatened 4.7% of the country’s land area and estuarine waters. The second Blue-winged Macaw Ara and 47.6% of its island shelf. site is a coastal freshwater lagoon maracana, which naturally Several distinct natural in the same region, the 75 ha inhabits palm groves in communities are represented. Laguna Respringue. grasslands rather than closed- Some 41% of the reserve • Ramsar Newsletter 30: 4, 1999 canopy forest. A number of encompasses dry limestone forests conservation organisations, such of Hellshire, Portland Ridge and as the American Bird Conservancy

5 Cotinga 14 Neotropical News and Fundación Armonía, are Hirundo in South America. and the population now stands at questioning the project. Mangue Seco, in Bahia, is the first 88 (including 24 pairs). It is hoped • Bird Calls 4 (1), 2000 reported South American locality that intensive conservation where large numbers of Roseate activities (including palm BRAZIL Terns concentrate in December- reforestation, nest protection, ‘New’ breeding record for March. The concentrations include local community support and Sickle-winged Nightjar members of both the North environmental education) by two The egg collection at the British American and Caribbean project staff will help the colony’s Museum of Natural History, UK, subpopulations; the only site population to reach 100 during has been found to contain two where they are known to occur 2000. Yet the species’ future is far eggs collected from a nest of the together. An individual recovered from secure, as the Quindio wax near-threatened Sickle-winged at this site sets an age record of palm Ceroxylon quindiuense on Nightjar Eleothreptus anomalus 25.6 years for the species. As for which the parrot depends is also in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Common Terns, recoveries suggest endangered and presently in November 1925. Previously that there is a regular transatlan­ undergoing a phase of accelerat­ unpublished, this provides only tic movement between Mangue ing population mortality. Two the third breeding record of the Seco and the Azores. research staff continuously species, and chronologically the • J. Field Orn. 70: 456–464, 1999 monitor the nesting colony and first record for the state. undertake radio-tracking to • Ararajuba 7: 139, 1999 COLOMBIA observe foraging areas. A wax Yellow-eared Parrot update palm population study is also Non-breeding tern concentra­ As Cotinga readers will know, a underway. tion found in Bahia colony of Yellow-eared Parrots • Bird Calls 4 (2), 2000; World Research— primarily from ringing Ognorhynchus icterotis has been Birdwatch 22: 17–21, 2000 (banding) recoveries — has discovered in the Colombian high revealed important information Andes. Work by Project concerning the non-breeding Ognorhynchus has produced distribution of Roseate Sterna encouraging results. By late 1999, dougallii and Common Terns S. at least ten chicks had been raised

6 C o tin g a 15 Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN that conservationists had largely tion International negotiated the ignored the plight of seabirds in deal with a private logging WEST INDIES the region and that research and company and also persuaded the W est Indian seabirds in serious standardised monitoring had been Bolivian government to perma­ decline neglected. The new publication is nently protect Madidi National A new publication by the Society the most up-to-date account of the Park. of Caribbean Ornithology (SCO), distribution and status of West • Plant Life 20: 13, 2000 entitled Status and conservation Indian seabirds, highlighting of West Indian seabirds states conservation issues and BRAZIL that almost all of the region’s discussing the steps vital to the NGO alliance to save Atlantic seabirds are in serious decline. long-term survival of this rapidly forest? This publication directly results disappearing heritage and In July 1999, Brazil’s largest from concerns expressed at a 1997 resource. environmental NGO, Fundão SOS International Seabird Workshop, • BirdLife Jamaica press release, Mâta Atlantica, formed an held at the SCO annual July 2000 alliance with Conservation conference in Aruba. Of a total of International to try to save the 21 seabird species that nest in the CENTRAL AMERICA Brazilian Atlantic forest. Less West Indies, six are Critically than 7% of this highly fragmented Endangered, three Endangered, GUATEMALA habitat remains. The aims of the four Vulnerable and two Near Significant Resplendent Quetzal ‘Joint Initiative for the Atlantic Threatened, i.e. more than half Pharomachrus mocinno popula­ forest’ are ‘Zero Deforestation’ are of current conservation tion found in an unprotected and ‘Zero Species Lost’. concern, including all six of the forest in Guatemala • Neotropical Primates 7 (3): 96, region’s endemic seabirds: Black- The national bird of Guatemala, 1999 capped Pterodroma hasitata and the Resplendent Quetzal Jamaican Petrels P. caribbaea, Pharomachrus mocinno, is PERU Audubon’s Shearwater Puffinus considered one of the most New protected area lherminieri, White-tailed spectacular birds in the New More than 6 million ha are to be Tropicbird Phaethon lepturus, World. It is restricted to Central added to Peru’s protected areas Brown Pelican Pelecanus American cloud forests that are system. The Peruvian govern­ occidentalis and Cayenne Tern declining rapidly, in Guatemala ment, the World Bank (through a Sterna sandvicensis eurygnatha. and elsewhere, due to shifting grant from the Global Environ­ Major reasons for declines are cultivation by indigenous Maya ment Facility) and WWF–Peru habitat destruction and people. Surveys, in 1998 and 2000, have drawn up a scheme whereby disturbance, human predation of discovered a population of local indigenous communities co­ eggs and adults, introduction of approximately 500 quetzals in a manage lands for biodiversity mammals, and chemical and solid cloud forest fragment of c. 1700 conservation. The government has waste/ pollution. Additionally, the ha, located on the ridges of Sierra complemented this with a most recent reason for seabird Caquipec (Alta Verapaz). The area commitment to establish an declines is the region’s growing is not protected, but in partner­ ecologically representative tourist industry. Development of ship with the Maya people a local protected areas system in the coastal habitats is increasing and NGO is initiating a conservation country. isolated small islands, rocks and programme. • IUCN Arbovitae 12: 10, 1999 cays that were formerly safe • U. Schulz & K. Eisermann in nesting sites are now increasingly litt. August 2000 being developed as attractions and/or are visited by tourists SOUTH AMERICA seeking remote island experi­ ences. The book notes that it is BOLIVIA ironic that while West Indian Bolivian fo rest saved? seabird colonies have become A total of 55 000 ha of Andean attractions for the ecotourism forest adjacent to the 290 000-ha industry, this is contributing to Madidi National Park has been their rapid demise. Participants of saved from a logging concession, the 1997 Aruba meeting agreed and will be protected. Conserva­

4 Cotinga 16

Neotropical News

GENERAL develop a captive-breeding produced results that were programme. The species’ disappointing in the light of New Internet alliance for bird population is thought to have reduced volcanic activity during conservation in Latin America declined considerably following a the intervening two years. The American Bird Conservancy has volcanic eruption in the mid-1990s number of orioles located was very launched a new Internet resource (see Cotinga 9: 8–9). substantially lower, as was the dedicated to bird conservation in • Durrell Wildlife Conservation number of sites where the species Latin America and the Caribbean. Trust press release, 21 July was present. Quarterly monitoring The website, called ‘Allianza por 1999. of a sub-sample of plots during las Aves’ (www.alianzaves.net), 1998 and 1999 also supports the has country pages, with links to Puerto Rican Amazons reintro­ idea of a continued decline. The conservation projects, organisa­ duced, but others stolen species’ status is now of tions, lists of endemic birds, In May 2001, 16 captive-reared considerable concern. By contrast birding sites and travel details. Puerto Rican Amazons Amazona the globally threatened Forest The site also includes a message vittata were released into the Thrush Cichlherminia lherminieri board and information on 23 Caribbean National Forest, joining appears to be thriving on important bird conservation the remaining 40 individuals in Montserrat, with numbers projects. ABC hopes the resource the wild. Ten had earlier been increasing steadily in the hill will help develop interest in bird released in June 2000, with a 50% forests since 1997. Given this conservation across the continent. survival rate (five were taken by a species’ apparent scarcity in its • NEO-ORN, 26 September 2000 Red-tailed Hawk Buteo other three range-states — jamaicensis). The releases were Guadeloupe, St Lucia and Neotropical Migratory Bird major achievements of the 32-year Dominica — Montserrat may Conservation Act clears US cooperation between several local harbour the most important sub­ Congress and US organisations. However, population. On 26 June, the USA House of further reintroduction efforts were • Geoff Hilton, Royal Society for Representatives passed the jeopardised following a burglary the Protection of Birds, in litt. Neotropical Migratory Bird at a US Fish and Wildlife Service March 2000 Conservation Act by a vote of aviary in the Caribbean National 384 : 22. The act authorises (but Forest, on 22 April 2001. An Wintering American Redstarts does not appropriate) funding, by undisclosed number of birds was in Jamaica matching finances for projects to stolen. The US Fish and Wildlife Studies of American Redstarts promote the conservation of Service has offered a US$2,500 Setophaga ruticilla wintering in Neotropical migratory birds in reward for information relating to Jamaica have revealed that the Latin America and the Caribbean. the theft. quality of a migratory bird’s The programme will be managed • Endangered Species Bulletin 25 tropical wintering grounds can by the US Fish and Wildlife (4): 27; U.S. Fish and Wildlife affect its survival and breeding Service, which will be required to Service news releases, 30 April success. Those wintering in high- develop guidelines for the 2001 and 18 May 2001 quality wet forests reach their proposals. The House has breeding grounds earlier, and in permitted US$5 million to be Latest news on Montserrat better condition, than birds made available annually and Oriole wintering in scrub. These findings requires that 75% of the money be In December 1999 a team from the have implications for focusing spent outside the US. Royal Society for the Protection of conservation action for migrants • NEO-ORN, 27 June 2000 Birds (the UK partner of BirdLife on tropical forests. International) worked with the • Winging It, April 1999 CARIBBEAN Ministry of Agriculture, Trade & Environment on Montserrat to Bermuda’s Cahows in 1999 Montserrat Orioles caught for repeat a December 1997 census of Continued conservation efforts are paying dividends for the recovery captive breeding Montserrat Oriole Icterus oberi. In July 1999, the Durrell Wildlife The earlier census was conducted of the Cahow Pterodroma cahow population. The species was Conservation Trust captured eight during the peak of volcanic wild Montserrat Orioles Icterus activity, and produced a rediscovered in 1951 after 350 years. The programme has oberi on the island of the same surprisingly high estimate of resulted in a slow but accelerating name. These will be used to c. 4000 orioles. The 1999 survey

6 Cotinga 16 Neotropical News

increase in the Cahow population, already a UNESCO Biosphere Hope for protection of Thick­ from 18 pairs in 1961 to an all- Reserve (January 2000) and billed Parrot time high of 56 pairs in 1999 (one includes a National Park and five In January 2000, two years of more than the previous year). other protected areas. The largest delicate negotiations paid Twenty-nine chicks hatched and and best-preserved wetland in the dividends when an agreement was 27 fledged. New-pair formation Caribbean, the site is outstanding signed to protect an important increased; from four pairs in 1998 for birds including migrants and breeding area for the endangered to seven pairs in 1999. This several threatened endemics. Thick-billed Parrot Rhynchopsitta compares to a mean one new Cuba’s accession brings the status pachyrhyncha. Recent field work colonising pair per year until the of the Convention to 124 by organisations such as the 1980s. Contracting Parties, with 1,061 Wildlife Preservation Trust • Bermuda Audubon Society Wetlands of International International and Monterrey Tech Newsletter 10(2): 4–5, 1999 Importance covering more than revealed that the Bisaloachic 81 million ha. (Cebadillas) area held perhaps New national park for • Ramsar Convention news 100 nesting pairs, 10% of the Imperial Amazon release, 6 May 2001 world population. The area In January 2000, the Rare Species comprises 2000 ha of relatively Conservatory Foundation helped New coastal management undisturbed forest that had been the island government of education programme under a logging concession, held Dominica to create the Morne The Canadian International by the Elido Tutuaca, a rural Diablotin National Park. The new Development Agency (CIDA) is to forest co-operative. The agreement park will protect nearly 5% of the fund a coastal management calls for a 15-year moratorium on country's land area and help education programme. The five- any cutting of timber in the area. conserve Dominca’s national bird, year initiative will help Cuba In return, several organisations— the Imperial Amazon (or Sisserou) address environmental problems notably The Wildlands Project, Amazona imperialis. But its related to rapid development Pronatura (Noreste) and creation has nearly bankrupted activities along the coast. Naturalia — will offset community the Foundation. They are trying to • The Gallon Environment Letter income losses. Incentives include a recoup a US$300 000 debt 4: 33, 2000 ‘rent payment’ eventually totalling (including director Paul Reillo’s 50% of the net value of timber life savings), having spent CENTRAL AMERICA that will not now be harvested. US$750 000 to buy a crucial 650 This will be complemented by a ha of forest. Reillo asserted that MEXICO movement towards sustainable there was no choice: ‘We are a tiny EcologyFund.com to save forest management and scientific organisation that is not Mexican forest development of ecotourism prone to land deals, but the Pronatura, Mexico’s largest possibilities. Sisserou is a flagship species conservation organisation has • Ernesto C. Enkerlin-Hoeflich, representing one of the last great announced a partnership with Wildlife Preservation Trust, in island ecosystems in the EcologyFund.com litt. 2000 Caribbean, and this parcel was (www.EcologyFund.com) and the the last stumbling block to US-based The Wildlands Project to New protection for and poten­ overcome. We had to go beyond conserve Mexican forest. The tial new threat to Monarch science and education and consortium has established a butterflies actually do something permanent.’ ‘click-to-donate’ website, whereby In November 2000, Mexican In return, the Government site visitors pay nothing but President Ernesto Zedillo decreed dedicated an additional 3500 ha contribute to the purchase of a new Monarch Danaus plexippus to the park. forest. From February to July butterfly Biosphere reserve in • Rare Species Conservatory 2000, over 700 ha was bought. The Michoacan state, 70 km west of Foundation website http:// conservation partners aim to work the capital. The move was in www.rarespecies.org, 4 January with EcologyFund.com to conserve response to a study demonstrating 2000 3000 ha of Sierra Madre forest, at that farming and illegal logging Cebadillas de Yaguirachic, and have destroyed 44% of the original Cuba joins Ramsar convention 8.000 ha in the Cuatro Ciénegas forest since 1971. The widely On 12 April 2001, Cuba acceded to valley, in northern Mexico. acclaimed decree was to the Convention on Wetlands Conservation work at the former implement a system through (Ramsar Convention). Cuba’s first site aims to help the threatened which local people will be Wetland of International Thick-billed Parrot Rhynchopsitta financially compensated for losing Importance is the 452 000 ha pachyrhyncha. logging rights. Yet in early March Ciénaga de Zapata in Matanzas • Press release, 19 July 2000 2001 local environmentalists province, encompassing the Bay of claimed that loggers, hoping to Pigs and the inland and coastal reclaim the forest, had deliber­ regions on either side. The site is ately sprayed pesticides on the

7 Cotinga 16 same forest in an attempt to wanted a ready supply of pork. Major forest corridor purchased eradicate the 22 million Tourist donations have funded The Ecuadorian organisation, butterflies that winter there. half the cost of the eradication NYTUA, Rainforest Concern and • NEO-ORN, 13 November 2000, programme. Fauna & Flora International have 9 March 2001 • BBC Wildlife, September 2000 purchased 5,260 ha of pristine forest linking the Cotacachi– BELIZE Oil pipeline could decimate the Cayapas Ecological Reserve and Scarlet Macaws at risk Neotropics’ first Important Bird the Awa Ethnic Reserve in north­ The Chalillo Dam is set to flood Area west Ecuador. The area had been some of the richest remaining The Critical Black-breasted Puffleg threatened by oil-palm develop­ rainforest in Belize, which Eriocnemis nigrivestis, a humming­ ment. In 1999, the demand for oil harbours the country’s last 250 bird on the brink of extinction has palms caused the destruction of Scarlet Macaws Ara macao. The been found on the proposed route of 10 000 ha of Ecuadorian forest. dam will cover c. 760 ha of forest the new oil pipeline in Ecuador. On • Oryx 35 (1): 12, 2001 close to the Guatemalan border. It 12 January 2000, Rob Williams and threatens to destroy two valuable Tatiana Santander of CECIA were PERU river ecosystems, both important undertaking surveys to locate Tambopata given national areas for biodiversity conserva­ remaining breeding areas for the tion. The dam aims to store water reserve status species, which now occurs only on for a downstream hydroelectric On 5 September 2000, the power station. The Belize the north slope of Volcán Pichincha Peruvian government created the Audubon Society believes that the west of Quito. The survey team was Tambopata National Reserve and Belize government has not checking all previously known doubled the size of the Bahuaja reviewed alternative options for localities for the puffleg, most of Sonene National Park. This electricity generation, such as which have now been deforested for followed the final withdrawal of obtaining electricity from options cattle grazing and charcoal Mobil, the international oil such as wind power, solar energy, production. They found Black­ company, from the Candamo basin and as a by-product from citrus breasted Puffleg on the route of the in late August. The national park fruit cultivation, sugar and proposed OCP (Oleoducto de now encompasses 1.1 million ha, sawmill industries. There are also Crudos Pesados) oil pipeline at an including the Candamo basin. An significant environmental altitude of 3240 m, on a ridge area of 262 000 ha has been concerns. The region is prone to called Cruz Loma. The proposed identified as a buffer zone. flash floods; construction of a dam pipeline and accompanying road • NEO-ORN, 23 September 2000 would affect the natural flooding would destroy much of the regime of the area, with unknown remaining vegetation along the BOLIVIA consequences on wildlife. ridge and would probably lead to Oil spill on altiplano Furthermore, Chalillo is fringed the extinction of the species at the by limestone; the likelihood of On 30 January 2000, an oil site. Black-breasted Puffleg is very cave systems would have pipeline traversing the altiplano, significant implications for dam local and rare, and apparently from La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, construction. relies on stunted ridge-top Chile, burst, spilling crude oil into • World Birdwatch 21 (4): 5, 1999 vegetation; very little habitat the río Desaguadero. The accident remains within its range. Surveys happened when the level of the SOUTH AMERICA in recent months have found the river rose rapidly during a storm. species at only one other location, Initial reports claim that oil where a single male and female gushed from the pipeline for 18 ECUADOR have been seen and forest clearance hours, releasing perhaps 5000 Galápagos battle to remove for cattle threatens the remaining barrels. The oil spread over 95 alien species almost over habitat. Given current knowledge, miles into lakes Uru Uru and Alien species, considered to be the the forest on Cruz Loma is probably Poopo, which are important sites gravest threat to Galápagos native an important area for the long-term for three species of flamingo: wildlife, have almost been survival of the species. It is hoped James’ Phoenicopterus jamesi, removed from the archipelago. A that the petrol companies will Andean P. andinus and Chilean P. 25-year programme to stop ensure that intensive studies of the chilensis. The pipeline is owned by thousands of wild pigs destroying species are undertaken to fully Transredes, a consortium of Shell the largest island, Santiago, is assess the status of the species in and Enron companies. The nearly complete. Pigs are the most the area and ensure that Wildlife Conservation Society has destructive of the islands’ 800 construction of the pipeline does been working with San Andres alien species, being thought to not prove to be the end of the University, La Paz, to conduct an have driven land iguanas Black-breasted Puffleg. environmental impact assessment Conolophus sp. to extinction on • Rob Williams in litt. January of the spill. Santiago. The pigs were released 2001 • Wildlife Conservation 103 (3): by 19th-century sailors who 21, 2000

8 Cotinga 16

Seismic testing threat to Oilrig sinking threatens approved a US$82.5 million loan Amboró Spectacled Petrel backing the long-term protection In March 2001, Argentine oil The sinking in March 2001 of the of the Pantanal. The initiative will company Andina S.A. announced world’s largest oilrig — P-36 off the increase the protected watershed its intention to proceed with 105 coast of Rio de Janeiro — has area from 0.5 million ha to km of seismic test lines in raised fears that scarce seabirds 2 million ha. An eight-year Bolivia’s Amboró National Park. may be at risk from any oil spill programme will clean the One 55 km test line falls entirely that results. BirdLife Interna­ increasingly polluted and over­ within Amboró’s strict scientific tional is deeply concerned at the fished waterways. reserve and would damage critical potential plight of the globally • Reuters, 8 December 2000 life zones at 800–1500 m. Andina endangered Spectacled Petrel has not been deterred by vigorous Procellaria conspicillata and near- Brazilian Merganser local protests. Amboró holds threatened Atlantic Yellow-nosed international recovery team important populations of several Albatross Thalassarche established threatened birds. chlororhynchos, which winter in In September 2000, the Brazilian • NEO-ORN, 9 March 2001 the area. The 40-storey oilrig has government hosted a workshop at 9500 barrels (1.5 million litres) of Serra da Canastra National Park BRAZIL crude oil onboard and sank 120 to devise an action plan to save Public pressures force Brazil to km north-east of Rio de Janeiro. the globally endangered Brazilian shelve deforestation legislation • BirdLife International News Merganser Mergus octosetaceus. On 17 May 2000, Brazil’s Congress Briefing, 20 March 2001, The workshop assembled experts shelved proposed legislation to reported on NEO-ORN from the species’ three range increase the rate and area of states (Argentina, Brazil and Amazon forest destruction. Penguins receive a warm Paraguay), the US and Europe. Ranchers and large landowners welcome in Rio Participants drew up recommen­ had attempted to push a draft law Increasing numbers of Magellanic dations for a conservation action through a joint House/Senate Penguins Spheniscus plan, including the formation of committee that would have relaxed magellanicus are making their an international recovery team to restrictions on deforestation, a law way from the Valdez peninsula in prioritise conservation needs and considered likely to result in a 25% Patagonia to the Rio de Janeiro to raise funds for project annual increase in clearing and coast — much to the bewilderment implementation. The action plan burning. Massive e-mail and fax of locals. In a typical year, 40 or so should be ready in April 2001 and protests to Congress and the individuals make the 3200 km the team will meet again in President, and broad international swim north, but numbers rose in August 2001. and national media coverage, 1999 and reached 300 in 2000. • Wildfowl and Wetlands orchestrated by Brazilian “This is totally atypical” said February 2001: 7 environmental groups, killed the Valdir Ramos, principal measure before it reached the mammalogist at the Rio de Coffee to help Atlantic Forest? House floor. The defeat is a Janeiro zoo. “We can’t talk about a Coffee growing is spreading into milestone for Brazilian NGOs. ‘penguin season' any more. It the Atlantic Forest of Bahia state, • Environmental Defense press doesn’t exist — they just keep to alternate outcry and acclaim. release, 18 May 2000 coming.” It is thought that the Some environmentalists fear that influx relates to unusually strong the new plantations will further New threat to Amazon cold ocean currents bringing reduce the dwindling Atlantic A new plan by the Brazilian birds — and perhaps their staple Forest, a UNESCO World government to develop the Amazon prey (anchovies) — further north. Heritage Site, and one of by improving infrastructure is Although most of the penguins are Conservation International’s 25 feared to cause environmental taken to Rio’s zoo to recover, some most threatened ecosystems on devastation that far outweighs the are reputedly kept as pets by Earth. But some local farmers perceived economic advantage. The fishermen who feed them sardines claim that shade-grown organic plan, Avança Brasil (Forward and even walk them on leashes. coffee can provide an economic Brazil), will see US$40 million “You wouldn’t believe how many incentive to retain forest rather spent over seven years on roads, people put these penguins in than clear-felling it. Coffee is hydroelectric dams, railways and freezers when they rescue them”, rapidly replacing cocoa as the waterways, but could leave only 5% said Ramos. “Of course, they principal crop in the region, of Amazonian forest intact by 2020. mostly die.” bringing in US$1800 per ha The government argues that the • The Guardian Weekly, 1 compared to US$340 for cocoa. improvements are needed to cater February 2001 Ruy Rocha, who heads the to the development needs of the Brazilian Institute for social- region's 12 million inhabitants. Hope for Pantanal environmental studies argues that • The Guardian, 20 January 2001 In December 2000, the Inter- farmers should be encouraged to American Development Bank plant the kind of shade-grown

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organic coffee popular in foreign Implications of forest loss and Program to Conserve the markets, to help keep the forest fragmentation for wildlife Brazilian Rainforest. Adminis­ intact. Wanderlino Medeiros conservation tered by the World Bank, the Bastos, a local coffee farmer, American and Brazilian biologists Program is attempting to channel agrees with this fundamental have assessed the implication of US$350 million from G7 premise: ‘As long as there are poor forest loss and fragmentation in governments into Amazonian people, if there’s a tree somewhere the Amazon for wildlife conserva­ conservation programmes. The that will fetch them 2000 reales, tion. William Laurence, Heraldo best grounds for optimism may be do you really think it’s going to Vasconcelos and Thomas Lovejoy the growing local support for stay there?’. consider that Amazonian forests conservation. There are now • CNN website, 8 September are experiencing rapid, unprec­ around 350 indigenous and 2000 edented changes that are having environmental groups in Brazil. major impacts on wildlife, regional But, the authors conclude, they Alagoas reserve threatened hydrology and the global climate. have a tough battle ahead. Murici reserve in Alagoas, one of Rates of deforestation and logging • Oryx 34: 39–45, 1999 the most important protected have accelerated recently, and areas for bird conservation in patterns of forest loss are Obituary: Spix’s Macaw extinct South America, is under changing, with new highways in the wild considerable threat. This site is providing conduits for settlers and It appears certain that Spix’s critical for the conservation of loggers in the heart of Amazonia. Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii is now several endangered Atlantic Logging operations are becoming extinct in the wild. Folha de São Forest endemics. Alagoas Foliage- increasingly international. In Paulo, a major Brazilian gleaner Philydor novaesi and 1996 alone, Asian companies newspaper, broke the news to the Alagoas Antwren Myrmotherula invested over $US500 million in world on 29 November 2000, snowi are currently known only the Brazilian timber industry and reporting that the famous last from this site. The dozen or so now own, or control, over 12 surviving male had not been seen other threatened species known million ha of Amazonian forest. In for 55 days. Searches until mid- from Murici include other Alagoas addition, there are nearly 400 February 2001 subsequently failed endemics such as Alagoas Brazilian timber companies, most to locate it. Another species lost; Tyrannulet Phylloscartes ceciliae with poor environmental records. another tragedy for global and Orange-bellied Antwren The Brazilian government biodiversity. The Club’s condo­ Terenura sicki. During a visit in estimates that 80% of Amazon lences go, in particular, to all February 2000, Andrew Whittaker timber is harvested illegally, those who have strived to bring learnt of a number of very irrespective of environmental this avian figurehead back from worrying activities. The reserve controls. the brink. has apparently been reduced to Such changes are causing • World Birdwatch 23: 9–11, 2001 2000 ha in area. Illegal loggers widespread forest fragmentation. have used tractors and bulldozers The total area now affected by Oil pollutes Rio bay to create roads into the heart of fragmentation, clearing and edge In January 2000, an oil slick the reserve, and have extracted effects could comprise as much as spanning nearly 30 km2 of the Rio large trees over a period of three one third of the Brazilian Amazon. de Janeiro coastline began to months. Illicit clear felling These fragmented landscapes wash up on Copacabana and continues on the reserve borders, experience diverse changes in Ipanema beaches. This was the including removal of the secondary forest dynamics, structure, worst environmental disaster to growth that served as the reserve composition and microclimate, and affect the city in 25 years. buffer zone. An ‘anti-logging gate’ are highly vulnerable to droughts Authorities blamed Petrobas, the has been destroyed. Burning and fires. Such alterations state oil company, for the spill, pasture on adjacent lands has negatively affect a broad range of which was caused when 500 caused forest fires. One IBAMA animal species. Many faunal tonnes of crude oil leaked from guard had reportedly not been groups, including understorey pipes at a refinery in Guanabara paid for several months, and had insectivorous birds, decline or Bay. The impact on the coast’s been forced to resort to slash-and- disappear in fragmented forests. shorebirds and seabirds is burn cultivation to feed his family. Many such species are also uncertain. Trapping of birds, including the unwilling to cross even the small • The Times, 22 January 2000 threatened Yellow-faced Siskin forest clearings that result from Carduelis yarrellii, is rife. Unless fragmentation. PARAGUAY action is taken urgently, this The authors are sceptical about Mbaracayu declared a Biosphere veritable ‘park in peril’ is doomed the Amazon’s future. The several reserve to extirpation, taking its endemic international and domestic In November 2000, the Mbaracayú birds along with it. programmes that exist face Forest Nature Reserve was • Andrew Whittaker in litt, to daunting challenges. The most officially declared a Biosphere NEO-ORN, March 2000 likely ‘saviour’ is the Pilot reserve. The 64 000 ha private

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reserve, managed by Fundación Military blunder sets Falklands to the Falkland Islands. Following Moisés Bertoni, is the country’s on fire a 10-year survey, in 1983–1993, most important site for bird In January 2001, at the height of just 2000 pairs were thought to conservation. It holds populations the seabird-breeding season, a fire remain, all on 12 offshore islands of threatened cerrado species such started accidentally by British c. 40 km distant from each other. as Rufous-faced Crake Laterallus troops trying to remove ordnance During 1997/8, further surveys xenopterus and White-winged burned 40% of South Jason Island revealed that the population was Nightjar Caprimulgus candicans, in the Falklands. The fire higher than previously considered, as well as Atlantic Forest destroyed 90% of the tussac grass c. 6000 pairs on 29 islands. Cobb’s endemics such as Black-fronted forming the nesting grounds of Wren did not occur on any of the Piping-guan Pipile jacutinga. 1750 pairs of the near-threatened 23 islands where there was • World Birdwatch 23: 3, 2001 Black-browed Albatross evidence of introduced rats. Thalassarche melanophri s and Interestingly, Grass Wren ARGENTINA 900 pairs of the Vulnerable Cistothorus platensis was found to Wetland reserve threatened by Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes occur on 21 of these 23 islands. petroleum exploration chrysocome. Recent surveys by Populations of Cobb’s Wren A Ramsar-listed wetland, Falklands Conservation had remain isolated; it is feared that Llancanelo in Mendoza province, earlier revealed that the total the species will be threatened is threatened by petroleum Falklands population of Black- should rats colonise any new exploration. YPF-Repsol, an browed Albatross had declined islands. Funding is now being international oil company, is from 458 000 in 1995 to 382 000 in sought to eradicate the rats. interested in exploiting oil November 2000. Fortunately, • The Warrah 17: 11 (2000) reserves within the 42 000 ha however, the main colony was only Laguna Llancanelo provincial burned around the edges, and the faunal reserve, which supports up birds escaped death. The Royal to 150,000 waterbirds during the Society for the Protection of Birds summer. Twenty-four species (BirdLife UK Partner), which is breed, including 10,000 pairs of involved in seabird censuses on Chilean Flamingo Phoenicopterus the islands, has requested the UK chilensis and 1500 pairs of Black­ government mount an enquiry. necked Swan Cygnus • World Birdwatch 23: 4, 2001 melancoryphus. Up to 24 000 • Falklands Conserv. Newsletter Black-necked Swan and 8000 2: 1 , 2001 Coscoroba Swan Coscoroba coscoroba use the wetland as a Update on Cobb’s Wren post-breeding moult refuge. Cobb’s Wren Troglodytes cobbi is • NEO-ORN, 23 September 2000 globally threatened and endemic

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Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN ■ CENTRAL AMERICA ■ SOUTH AMERICA

Montserrat Oriole ups and MEXICO VENEZUELA downs A major volcanic eruption that Another new RAMSAR site Venezuelan Ornithology began in 1996 has destroyed The 61 707 ha Dzilam coastal and N etw ork c. 60% of Montserrat’s hill forests, marine reserve has been declared The Venezuelan Ornithology which comprise the entire range a Ramsar site. It lies adjacent to Network (OVUM — Ornitólogos of the threatened endemic the ría Lagartos Ramsar site, in Venezolanos Unidos Montserrat Oriole Icterus oberi. the north Yucatán Peninsula. Milagrosamente) was conceived at Worryingly, monitoring since 1997 More than 20,000 waterbirds are the VI Neotropical Ornithology has also shown a population thought to occur. Congress in Monterrey in October decline within the remaining • The Ramsar Newsletter 32: 9 1999. The founding members were 14 km2 of intact forest in the (2001) 13 professional biologists with a Centre Hills. A new research keen interest in Venezuelan project, aiming to uncover the Locusts continue to swarm on ornithology. By June 2001, the cause of this decline, began in the Socorro Island Network had 85 members, 2001 breeding season. The project, Conservationists are expressing comprising biologists, which is funded by the UK increasing concern at the growing veterinarians, bird tour guides Foreign & Commonwealth Office, locust Schistocerca sp. swarm on and enthusiastic amateurs. is a joint initiative of the Socorro. The island is important Interests range from ecology and Montserrat Ministry of Agricul­ for its population of the endemic natural history to conservation ture Lands, Housing & (and critically endangered) and taxonomy. Regular meetings Environment, Montserrat Socorro Mockingbird Mimodes are held in the Colección National Trust and the Royal graysoni. The locust population Ornitológica Phelps. The first Society for the Protection of Birds has apparently grown signifi­ Ornithology Symposium was held (UK). Initial field work centred on cantly since 1996, when it was in November 2000. Its two major measuring reproductive success identified as a problem (with one topics were the role of and determining causes of swarm estimated at 50 million). birdwatchers in generating reproductive failure. Automated The insects apparently originated information on threatened species micro nest cameras indicate a from a population in Sinaloa. One and the creation of a Society of high rate of nest predation by observer commented: ‘they fly all Venezuelan Ornithologists. One of rats. Research on adult over the island and practically are the key roles of the Network is survivorship and the health of destroying the foliage of all trees coordination of information on insect food supply has also they touch’. One solution Venezuelan birds and to effect this commenced. In July a remnant proposed has been spraying with a Venezuelan Rarities Committee population of orioles was pesticides once the locusts move has been set up (see below). discovered by researchers in a into degraded habitat thus Funding is being sought for an small forest patch only 1 km from avoiding affecting endemic fauna). annual Venezuelan ornithological the summit of the volcano, and The locusts have apparently bulletin. Birdwatchers and entirely surrounded by pyroclastic developed resistance to one ornithologists who would like to flows. This astonishing and pathogen that has been subscribe to the OVUM Network encouraging discovery was rapidly introduced. are invited to contact Prof. Sandra followed by another major • H. Walter and J. Martinez- Giner of the Instituo de Zoología volcanic eruption on Montserrat, Gomez in litt. 29 May 2001 Tropical at the Universidad in which heavy ash falls were Central de Venezuela recorded on large areas of the ([email protected]). Centre Hills, destroying several • Chris Sharpe in litt. June 2001 oriole nests. • Geoff M. Hilton, Gerard A. L. Gray, Stephen MacNamara and Chris Bowden in litt. October 2001

7 Cotinga 17 Neotropical News

Venezuelan Rare Birds ECUADOR Short-winged Grebes surveyed C om m ittee around Lake Titicaca The Venezuelan Rare Birds Mangroves protected A group of ornithologists (Gunnar Committee was formed during the The purchase and destruction of Engblom, David Geale, Diógnes First Annual Ornithology mangroves has been declared Chalhuanca and Gregorio Ferro) Symposium in November 2000. illegal in the country. The shrimp recently conducted field work to The committee aims to act as a aquaculture industry has assess the distribution of Short­ repository of information on rare destroyed half of Ecuador’s winged Grebe Rollandia birds in Venezuela, to evaluate mangroves since 1960. Of the microptera. Study sites comprised potential new and unusual 207 000 ha of shrimp ponds in the the complex of lakes immediately records and to publicise this country, some 75% are thought to west of Huancane between Lago information via e-mail, by means be illegal. The ruling by the de Arapa and Lago Titicaca; Lago of the Venezuelan Ornithology President of Ecuador’s Constitu­ Umayo and the small lakes Network (OVUM) and through an tional Tribunal is a landmark for immediately to the north; and annual publication within an coastal conservationists. most of Lago de Arapa. The key existing national journal. The • Marine Pollution Bull. 422: 84 site was Lago de Arapa (holding Committee consists of four (2001) 212 birds, including juveniles), experts in Venezuelan ornithology, with small numbers (less than 11) who meet on a regular basis to Another new Ramsar site found at Chucuito, and Lagunas discuss and evaluate recent The 4705 ha Isla Santay has been Umayo, Sunuco, Cuisco, Yanaoco, records. Species covered by the designated a Ramsar site. The Huinihui and Titihui. Grebes are committee include potential first island contains intertidal forested threatened by becoming records; species for which fewer wetlands, including mangrove entangled in fishing nets. The than five records exist for the swamps, and is located in the nets used are 80–100 m in length, country; and nationally and Guayas river delta on the and have been widely used since globally threatened species. In outskirts of the city of Guayaquil. around 1990. Laguna Cupisco is addition, the Committee • The Ramsar Newsletter 32: 9 free of nets and was found to hold gratefully accepts other (2001) a high density of grebes. Local interesting information, such as people also harvest grebe eggs for early and late dates for migrants, Galápagos escapes oil spill food. Overall, the population is range extensions and unusual In January 2001, the Galápagos thought to have declined behavioural observations. The escaped disaster after the tanker significantly since 1987. A few Committee hopes to improve Jessica ran aground off San drought years is thought to be dialogue between national and Cristobal, spilling 900 tonnes of sufficient to create local visiting ornithologists. oil. Fortunately, winds and extinction. Birdwatchers are encouraged to currents carried the oil away from • G. Engblom in litt, to BirdLife submit records for committee shore. There was no evidence of International, July 2001 evaluation by e-mail to the island’s endemic fauna having [email protected]. A records been affected. BOLIVIA submission form is available. • Marine Pollution Bull. 423: 165 • Chris Sharpe in litt. June 2001 (2001) New Ramsar site Cuenca de Tajzara has been COLOMBIA PERU declared a Ramsar site. It encompasses 5500 ha of semi­ New Ramsar site Candamo Valley protected permanent and permanent lakes, The 39 000 ha Laguna de la Cocha In September 2000, the Candamo high-altitude streams, marshes has been declared a Ramsar site. Valley was declared a national and high-Andean pastures in the The site comprises a volcanic lake park. Home to 600 species of birds Tajzara basin at 3700 m. Forty surrounded by high-Andean and 14 species of primates, the species of birds characteristic of peatlands, and holds a diverse 142 000 ha site was part of a high-Andean aquatic systems fauna including the threatened presidential decree doubling the occur. Mountain Tapir Tapir pinchaque size of the Bahuaja-Sonene • The Ramsar Newsletter 32: 8 and Spectacled Bear Tremarctos National Park in south-west Peru. (2001) ornatus. The decision came a fortnight • The Ramsar Newsletter 32: 8 after oil giant Exxon-Mobil Last site for Wattled Curassow (2001) withdrew from oil exploration in Wattled Curassow Crax globulosa the general area. is still extant in Bolivia. The last • Wildlife Conserv. Jan/Feb 2001: official record in Bolivia was from 16 1937. In August 2001, an

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Armonía/BirdLife International project could even qualify for Lear’s Macaw census tallies 246 team, supported by the Swedish ‘carbon credits’ under the Kyoto birds Embassy, conducted Important Protocol’s ‘Clean Development An article in O Estado de São Bird Area (IBA) field work in the Mechanism’. ‘The Antonina Paulo, a Brazilian newspaper, in lower tropical várzea forest of the Reforestation Pilot Project will June 2001, reported that a new lower río Beni. The team help protect one of the most census of Lear’s Macaws investigated reports from local important and ecologically Anodorhynchus leari in May hunters that curassows persisted significant places on Earth’, said recorded 246 birds, up from 170 in the area. Seven individuals Steve McCormick, TNC President. found in a 1999 census. were discovered along the río ‘Moreover, it will provide a • http://www.estadao.com.br/ Negro, in a remote area with very replicable model for how ciencia/noticias/2001/jun/07/ poor accessibility. Conservation of rainforest conservation and 280.htm, courtesy of J. Wall in the area is thought likely to be restoration can help combat litt. to NEOORN, June 2001 dependent on creation of a private climate change. We appreciate reserve. Texaco’s involvement in this Amazon still shrinking — and fast • Bennett Hennessey in litt. 25 innovative effort’. Deforestation of the Brazilian September 2001 • Texaco press release, 4 Amazon was greater in 2000 than September 2001 at any time since 1995, according BRAZIL to new satellite data released by Murici protected the government in May 2001. Oil giant partners with The The Ecological Station of Murici Brazil’s National Institute for Nature Conservancy to help was created on 29 May 2001, Space Research (INPE), which restore Brazilian Atlantic forest through a federal decree signed monitors deforestation by In September 2001, Texaco, The by President Cardoso. Lying in satellite, issued a provisional Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Alagoas, the remnant Atlantic estimate for the period August Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida forest fragments at Murici are one 1999–August 2000, based on a Selvagem e Educação Ambiental of the continent’s most important sampling scheme. The mean (Society for Wildlife Research and areas for the conservation of annual rate of gross deforestation Environmental Education or biodiversity. BirdLife Brasil, in 1999–2000 was 19 836 km2. SPVS, a Brazilian NGO) together with Sociedade From August 1998 to August announced a joint project to Nordestina de Ecologia, 1999, the mean annual rate of restore and protect c. 1000 ha of collaborated with IBAMA and the deforestation was 17 259 km2. Atlantic forest on the coast of Ministry of the Environment to Environment Minister José southern Brazil. A US$3 million create the reserve. Thirteen Sarney Filho said: ‘The federal investment by Texaco facilitated globally threatened bird species government has done its the Antonina Pilot Reforestation occur at Murici, two of which are homework and is doing every­ Project’. Located in Paraná, the currently known only from this thing it can to stop deforestation land will be owned and managed locality: Alagoas Foliage-gleaner in Brazil.’ An environment by SPVS. TNC will provide Philydor novaesi and Alagoas ministry official added that the technical assistance. The land Antwren Myrmotherula snowi. government would introduce an surrounds an existing 2,800 ha The others are: Orange-bellied environmental licensing system reserve (Morro da Mina), also Antwren Terenura sicki, Alagoas for private properties. The managed by SPVS. This reserve Tyrannulet Phylloscartes ceciliae, satellite TM-Landsat, used by includes a native plant nursery Golden-tailed Parrotlet Touit INPE, does not reveal deforesta­ that produces 100 000 seedlings surda, Plain Spinetail Synallaxis tion of areas smaller than 6.4 ha, per year, which will be used to infuscata, Scalloped Antbird thus excluding from its results restore degraded areas of the new Myrmeciza ruficauda, Black­ the impact of hundreds of land area. The project is expected headed Berryeater Carpornis thousands of small-scale farmers to bring several key benefits. It melanocephala, Buff-throated and selective logging of lucrative will help protect the primary Purpletuft Iodopleura pipra, species. ‘The new figures clearly source of drinking water for White-winged Cotinga Xipholena show that efforts by the Brazilian Antonina’s population of c. 20 000 atropurpurea, Seven-coloured government have failed to stop, or inhabitants. It will contribute to Tanager Tangara fastuosa, even to slow, deforestation of the biodiversity conservation; the site Forbes’s Blackbird Curaeus forbesi Amazon’, Greenpeace Amazon is thought to hold six globally and Yellow-faced Siskin Carduelis campaigner Paulo Adário said. threatened bird species. Finally, yarrellii. ‘This loss of forest cover in the the project hopes to create a • Jacqueline M. Goerck, BirdLife Amazon is unacceptable and scientific model to better International — Brazil Pro­ unsustainable.’ Greenpeace is understand the role that gramme, in litt. June 2001, calling on the Brazilian govern- reforestation can play in September 2001 mitigating climate change. The

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ment to reduce deforestation to defending the bill. Environmen­ Numbers of chicks are thought to zero by the year 2010. talists favour the existing have declined slightly, from 229 in • Reported on BIOPLAN list measure and want it to be made 1995–96 to 175 in 2000. A suitable server, 16 May 2001 permanent. They fear that local method of assessing Magellanic governments with inadequate Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus Developers win first round in technical expertise may has still not been found. The Brazil Amazon battle undertake the zoning studies. population of Black-browed In early September 2001, a • Marco Sibaja, Reuters news Albatross Diomedea melanophris Brazilian congressional commis­ service (http://www.planetark.org), is thought to have crashed from sion approved a bill that 7 September 2001 468 000 pairs in 1995–96 to environmentalists say could 382 000 pairs in 2000. The accelerate destruction of the ARGENTINA authors of the study — Becky Amazon, should it become law. Ingham, Andrea Clausen and Nic The bill calls for local environ­ Results of Falklands Seabirds Huin — calculate that ‘this mental and land-use studies to Census 2000 represents a decline of 17 000 per form the basis for permitting Falklands Conservation has year, or 48 per day, or two per current limits on logging on advanced its seabird censuses, hour’. The worryingly sharp private land in the Amazon to be with several significant results. decline is considered due to relaxed. Its opponents, however, Detailed surveys by three teams longline fishing operations over vowed the bill would not gain in October–December 2000 the Patagonian Shelf. As a result, approval on the floor of both targeted all colonies in the the Falklands Government is chambers of Congress, which is archipelago. Gentoo Penguin expected to introduce a law that required for it to become law. Even Pygoscelis papua was found to requires every longliner in if approved, President Fernando have increased from 65 000 pairs Falkland waters to have an Henrique Cardoso has said he in 1995–96 to 113 000 pairs. observer on board — to improve would veto it. Moacir Micheletto, However, breeding success was the reliability of bycatch figures from Paraná, who is a supporter of lower than normal, at 0.4 chick and increase the use of mitigation the farming industry, drew up the per pair. The Rockhopper Penguin measures to reduce mortality. bill. It advocates the introduction Eudyptes chrysocome population • The Warrah 19: 2–4 (2001) of ‘zoning’ studies of Amazon was thought to be stable around forest to determine how much 272 000 pairs, with the previous New Ramsar site forest can be cut. It seeks to estimate of 297 000 pairs in 1995– Laguna de Vilama has been replace a three-year old 96 now considered to be an declared Argentina’s eighth ‘provisional’ measure that overestimate, due to inaccurate Ramsar site. The area covers requires 80% of all private survey methodologies. The species 157 000 ha of Andean highland property in the Amazon to be remains a cause for concern, lagoons in Jujuy province, at protected, opening the way to having not recovered its previous 4500 m above sea level. The reduce that percentage if local high numbers and continues to lagoons support a rich aquatic studies recommend such changes. decline elsewhere in the world. avifauna, while the surrounding ‘With the current provisional King Penguin Aptenodytes plains hold scarce species such as measure, 20 million Brazilians patagonicus is thought to have Greater Rhea Rhea americana. are unable to produce and take increased from 38 pairs in the • The Ramsar Newsletter 32: 8 their goods to market’, said 1980s to 344–516 pairs in 2000. (2001) lawmaker Marcio Bittar,

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Neotropical News

SOUTH AMERICA support of its mission. ProAves New gnatcatcher in danger of also seeks to support initiatives disappearing before being COLOMBIA you may have for enacting described research or conservation of birds A new species of gnatcatcher, Assisting bird conservation in in Colombia. Please visit their web known at present only from a Colombia: ProAves page (www.proaves.org) where you small area of white-sand forest in Colombia has the distinct privilege can find further information and the Allpahuayo–Mishana Reserve, of harbouring the greatest ways to lend your expertise and close to the city of Iquitos in Peru’s diversity of birds in the world. help. Amazon basin, is in danger of With this honour comes great • Paul Salaman in litt. 2002 becoming extinct prior to it being responsibility for their survival, formally described. Three other but unfortunately the state of the ECUADOR species of birds have recently been environment in Colombia is discovered and described from the rapidly deteriorating, which is N ew fishing plan aims to save same area: the Ancient Antwren reflected in the increasing number Galápagos wildlife Herpsilochmus gentryi, Mishana of bird species being classified as The Ecuadorian government is Tyrannulet Zimmerius villarejoi threatened. With the principal attempting to coax the island’s 400 and Allpahuayo Antbird interest of protecting birds and fishing boats into fishing near the Percnostola arenarum, and the promoting conservation, young fringe of the Galápagos marine description of a new subspecies of ornithologists and conservationists reserve’s 64-km perimeter, with an antbird of the genus Myrmeciza from across the country have promises of support to help them will appear soon. All of these together formed Fundación sell their catches to bigger tuna species, together with many other ProAves–Colombia. ProAves is a fleets. ‘The best thing that could rare plants and animals are charitable NGO with the urgent happen to Galápagos is to get threatened by a recent land charter of conducting research to fisherman out … as far as possible invasion precipitated by a group of formulate and, importantly, from the two-mile radius’, land speculators. The economic implement conservation action Environment Minister Lourdes limitations of the Peruvian plans to protect the nation’s Luque told reporters. Fishing is an institutions responsible for the threatened and endemic birds and age-old source of controversy in protection of this reserve are their habitats. Presently, ProAves the pristine Galápagos, as preventing the enforcement of the members are working across the industrial tuna fisherman from law, and therefore the necessary country undertaking a diverse the coastal port of Manta are expulsion of the invaders. array of projects. These include, seeking permits to fish within the The Allpahuayo–Mishana for example, a programme of reserve, 1000 km west of reserve was created in March 1999 environmental education focusing mainland Ecuador, while every few by the Peruvian government. It on birds, rediscovering and weeks marine authorities catch encompasses 57 600 ha, assessing the population of Azure­ illegal boats loaded with shark approximately 25 km south of winged Parrot Hapalopsittaca fins inside the park’s limits. Iquitos in the Amazon basin. The fuertesi, protecting the last two Environmental organisations rainforests near Iquitos are known colonies of Yellow-eared oppose letting industrial fleets fish famous for their habitat Parrot Ognorhynchus icterotis, in the Galápagos, fearing rare heterogeneity. A combination of and managing protected areas, birds and marine life will get historical and geological events such as Pangan Nature Reserve in caught in tuna nets. Tuna was has given the area a mosaic of the Choco region, where over 21 Ecuador’s fifth biggest export last diverse soil types — ranging from threatened and near-threatened year. Luque said the plan to entice pure white quartz sands to red species together with over 40 local fishermen away from the clays. In addition, the reserve endemics occur. ProAves works coastline would aid conservation harbours swamp forests as well as with various partners, including efforts and keep the peace with seasonally inundated forests. Each other ornithological groups, Manta’s tuna industry. of these distinct formations national conservation NGOs, and • Reuters, 7 May 2002 supports a unique community of the regional National Parks plants and animals, the result administrative body. ProAves being that Allpahuayo–Mishana invites you to join forces in contains one of the highest biodiversities known in the Amazon basin.

11 Cotinga 18 Neotropical News

Allpahuayo–Mishana is the only of this type of forest in the their traditional way of life and terra firme primary forest that is country But, today this vital disrupting the delicate balance of easily accessible from Iquitos. The reserve is in grave danger of being sustainable use and long-term nearest national park, Pacaya- effectively wiped off the face of the preservation of the forest that Samiria is a three-day journey by map. (For more details about the these local communities are trying boat from the city. In contrast, Allpahuayo-Mishana reserve, visit to implement. Allpahuayo-Mishana can be http://www.peruecologico.com.pe/ Fortunately a leading group of reached in half an hour by car. areas_alpahuayomishana.htm or Peruvian and North American There is a field station available alternatively go to http:// ornithologists and conservationists for biology students and tourists in www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife/ are now working with the the reserve, and many Peruvian 2001/alvarez.html). Rainforest Conservation Fund in and international investigators, Due to its proximity to the city the USA, BirdLife International in have conducted research there, of Iquitos, the continued Europe, and Amigos de adding to its fame as Peru’s conservation of the reserve is a Allpahuayo–Mishana in Iquitos, to hotspot of biodiversity Indeed, the challenging problem. Although the ensure the continued preservation species counts from Allpahuayo– formal creation of the reserve of Allpahuayo–Mishana, but Mishana rank among the world’s gives the area legal protection for requires help. Immediate needs highest. For example, 143 species perpetuity, this does not guarantee are funds for protective services of reptiles have been recorded actual preservation for the land, (personnel, vehicles for park around Iquitos — the most ever due to the enormous demographic guards, fences and signs). Longer registered at one locality In pressures on the area, combined term requirements are funds for addition, 71 species of amphibians, with the limited availability of research, promotion of ecotourism, 460 species of birds, and close to resources in Peru for park environmental education, and 2000 species of plants have been maintenance and protection. The help with sustainable economic recorded in this small reserve. participation of the private sector alternatives for the local Many of these are white-sand and international organisations is communities to continue to live specialists and are therefore urgently needed, now more than inside the reserve, especially use exceedingly rare, due to the ever. In December 2001, a group of of non-timber forest products and scarcity of white-sand forests in land speculators encouraged 200 community-based ecotourism. Any Peru. For example, about a dozen persons to enter the reserve and economic help is welcome, as well bird species have been found to be begin to carve out homesteads. as suggestions for cooperative associated with white-sand forests While this action is illegal, the projects or research for the short- in this area, and for several of authorities in Iquitos have a and long-term health of the them, these forests near Iquitos limited budget to enforce existing reserve. Please send your tax- are their only known distribution laws, and recently many illegal deductible donations to: Rainforest in Peru. At least four new species roads have been created, trees Conservation Fund, 2038 North of birds have been discovered felled, and animals hunted by the Clark Street, Suite 233, Chicago, within the last five years in colonists. White-sand forests are Illinois 60614-4713, USA. Please Allpahuayo–Mishana (see above). extremely fragile and are in no write ‘Allpahuayo–Mishana Fund’ Three species of endangered way suitable for agriculture. Once on your cheque. primates are found within the the trees are felled, available • José Alvarez Alonso in litt. to reserve, and for two of them, nutrients quickly leach away NEOORN, 8 March 2002 Yellow-handed Titi Monkey through the sand, and the ground Callicebus torquatus and becomes a degraded wasteland. BRAZIL Equatorial Saki Monkey Pithecia Recovery times for cleared white- aequatorialis, Allpahuayo–Mishana sand forests are estimated to be Mayor of Itaituba caught logging is the only place where these well over 1000 years! Although A m a zô nia National Park monkeys’ habitat has been unsuitable for agriculture, the In April 2001, IBAMA was notified officially protected in Peru. land value has increased in recent of logging activity within the However, biologists have only years due to its proximity to the limits of the Amazonia National scratched the surface in their city of Iquitos and the recent Park. In May, a small team of efforts to describe the flora and construction of a paved highway. IBAMA inspectors visited the fauna of Allpahuayo–Mishana. It is Indeed, open lands are available region and discovered an illegal probable that many of the white- which are much more fertile and clear-cut of 706 ha and further sand endemics could disappear therefore more suitable for preparation of 3000 ha for clear- before being discovered, as agriculture, but further away from cutting within the park. According thousands of hectares of forest the city. There are already six to the inspectors, the men working have already been destroyed. The traditional communities within in the park confessed to be Allpahuayo-Mishana reserve is the the borders of the reserve. These working for the mayor of the local only white-sand forest that has support the reserve and are town of Itaituba, Wirland Freire, legal protection in Peru and protesting against the invasion. who had recently purchased a protects the largest concentration The new colonists are threatening farm near the park, and was

12 Cotinga 18 Neotropical News preparing the park to be burned • http://www.greenpeace.org/ spokesman Heraldo Munoz. The in order to expand his cattle- ~forests/forests_new/html/ fires, which started in late ranching operation. Norberto content/reports/ January, reached state-protected Neves de Souza, the IBAMA agent Amazon_Park.PDF nature reserves, destroying forests in charge of the operation, of Araucaria and other species. informed Greenpeace that at least CHILE Some small farms and commercial 70 chainsaws were operating tree plantations were also within the park, and during the Fires ravage native forests in destroyed, the state forestry inspection, IBAMA confiscated 14 southern Chile agency admitted, but populated chains for chainsaws, two axes, Fires raging uncontrolled in early areas were not affected. 234 sharpening files, 89 scythes 2002 had, by late February, ‘Fortunately, the fires are not and four tents. A team of destroyed at least 53 000 ha of affecting important urban centres. Greenpeace activists accompanied land, one-third of which had native However, some farmers have lost a second IBAMA inspection of tree species found only in Chile, houses and resources’, Munoz Amazônia National Park and of about 800 km south of the capital, said, while pledging government the mayor’s farm later in May. Santiago. ‘Frankly, it’s an support to the victims. It was During the inspection a chainsaw, environmental tragedy because predicted likely to take fire two shotguns and various there are many separate fires. fighters one month in order to chainsaw belts were confiscated. They had been stabilised but bring the blazes under control. Mayor Freire has subsequently unfortunately the meteorological • Reuters, 27 February 2002 received two fines, totalling conditions … made them spread US$20 000. beyond the barriers that we had set up initially’, said government

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Neotropical News

CARIBBEAN between expected coastal SOUTH AMERICA development of up to 10,000 hotel BAHAMAS rooms and the 640 000-ha Sian BRAZIL Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico’s Protected-areas system to first UNESCO World Heritage Expansion of National Forests d o u b le Site. s y s te m Ten new protected areas have been • Plant Talk 28 (April 2002) Brazil’s government is currently created in the Bahamas, doubling implementing a policy for the size of the country’s national NICARAGUA sustainable forest production park system. The announcement within an expanded system of was made by former Prime Seven new wetlands added to National Forests (‘Fionas’). By Minister, Hubert Ingraham, in the the list of Ram sar sites for 2010, 50 million ha of new Fionas course of an address to the AGM of N ic a r a g u a will have been created. The scale the Bahamas National Trust in Since February 2002, the Ministry of this initiative is equivalent to April 2002. The initiative results of the Environment and Natural the 1908 establishment of the US from commitments made by the Resources, Nicaragua, has added National Forest system, and is Bahamas under the UN the following areas to the list of unprecedented in the tropics. The Convention on Biological Diversity. important international wetlands: resultant mosaic of conservation The new protected areas cover Cayos Miskitos Marine Biological areas, combining Fionas with fully wetlands, coral reefs, and forests. Reserve and its immediate protected parks and indigenous • Newsletter of the Bahamas surroundings, the coastal fringe reservations, is expected to Natl. Trust 8(1): 1–2 (2002) north-east of the North Atlantic enhance biodiversity conservation Autonomous Region (total area and economic stability throughout First IBA workshop in the 85 000 ha); deltas of the Royal the Amazon. Establishment of B a h a m a s Estuarine and Apacunca Plains these Fionas is expected to foster The Bahamas held its first (81 700 ha) which is a key development of large-scale Important Bird Area (IBA) ecosystem for a diverse number of sustainable forestry and make National Workshop in April 2002. marine and estuarine species; Brazil a world leader in conserving Hosted by the Bahamas National Lake Apanas-Asturias, in Jinotega natural resources. Trust, participants included (5226 ha) which holds many • Science 297: 1478 (2002) government officials, local migrant ducks, including up to ornithologists and NGOs. Ninety 3000 Blue-winged Teal Anas CHILE key areas were identified discors; Río San Juan Wildlife throughout the archipelago, with Refuge, in the south-east of the Latest on the Ruddy-headed 45 considered ‘vital’ to country (43 000 ha); Bluefields G o o s e maintaining bird populations and Bay Wetland System (86 501 ha) Studies of the distribution and habitat diversity. which is the largest natural abundance of Ruddy-headed Geese • Newsletter of the Bahamas resource site in the southern Chloephaga rubidiceps were Natl. Trust 8(1): 7–8 (2002) Caribbean region of Nicaragua; undertaken in its southern San Miguelito Wetland System Chilean breeding range in MIDDLE AMERICA (43 475 ha) which holds up to December 1999 and March 2000. 5000 Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis; During December 1999, 737 MEXICO and Tisma Lagoon System (16 850 individuals were counted, ha) which harbours up to 20 000 including 134 chicks, while the Gateway to Biosphere Reserve Blue-winged Teal. For further March 2000 count totalled 750 p r o t e c t e d information contact Martín individuals. San Gregorio, in In January 2002, The Nature Lezama-Lopez, Departamento de continental Chile, proved to be a Conservancy and a Cancún-based Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de key site, with 78% of breeding conservation organisation, Amigos Ciencias, Tecnologia y Ambiente, pairs. This species, with a stable de Sian Ka’an, purchased a critical Universidad Centroamericana, and numerous population in the coastal area on the Yucatán Managua, Apdo. 69, Nicaragua, or Falklands, is dwindling on the peninsula. Although only covering by e-mail: [email protected]. continent. Breeding sites were 25.6 ha, the new protected area at • La Tangara 40 (May/June, characterised by the presence of Pez Maya will form a barrier 2002) wet fields, offering protection from predators. These sites have been

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heavily overgrazed in Tierra del PARAGUAY but their functions as lines of Fuego, where foxes were also division should be reduced to introduced. Breeding success is First cross-border conservation permit them to assume more highly susceptible to disturbance, area in South Am erica welcome functions as lines of and it is suggested that action be In July 2002, the Instituto de positive and productive contact. taken to protect the main sites. Derecho y Economia Ambiental • S. Abed-Zavala, Instituto de • Bol. Chileno Orn. 7 (2000) (Paraguay) acquired an additional Derecho y Economia Ambiental c. 4000 ha in the Infante Rivarola (IDEA) in litt. August 2002 COLOMBIA area, at Canada del Carmen, in the Paraguayan Chaco. This URUGUAY Indigo-winged Parrot protected area will be, together rediscovered with the Bolivian private reserve Im portant Bird Areas project in In July 2002, Jorge Velasquez and El Corbalán, the first cross-border U r u g u a y Alonso Quevedo photographed a conservation area in South Aves Uruguay has identified 11 flock of 14 Indigo-winged Parrots America. The international Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in its Hapalopsittaca fuertesi in the community has long realised the first analysis, which includes sites Colombian Central Andes. This trans-boundary nature of most throughout the country. A constitutes the first documented environmental problems, and the proposed National IBAs workshop record for 91 years, following an inefficacy of unilateral efforts. was due to take place in August unconfirmed report in 1989. The Nevertheless, this event 2002 involving technicians and researchers were funded by the BP transcends the natural resources government authorities in order to Conservation Programme, conservation spectrum: cross- reach a national agreement and administered jointly by BirdLife border conservation areas provide achieve support from government International and Flora & Fauna a mechanism to promote sound organisations for the research. For International. ecological management of such further information contact • The Guardian, 21 August 2002 cross-border ecosystems and Gabriel Roche, Coordinador opportunities for political, Programa AIAs, Aves Uruguay, or economic and cultural cooperation. by e-mail, [email protected]. Boundaries should be retained, • La Tangara 40 (May/June, 2002)

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