Growing flowers to save a Critically Endangered hummingbird

Flitting through the mist in Ecuador’s high Andean forests, the Black-breasted Puffleg is running out of habitat. A forest restoration programme offers hope, working with local people to plant the species’ favourite flowers.

When it comes to birdwatching, Ecuador is a lucky country. Although it occupies only 0.2% of the earth's surface, it houses around 130 species of hummingbird – that is, more than 35% of all the world's hummingbirds. Some are found nowhere else on the planet, including the Black-breasted Puffleg Eriocnemis nigrivestis. This Critically Endangered endemic lives 3,200 – 3,400 metres above sea level, amid the cold mist and drizzle of the high Andean forests. Its unique name comes from the white feathers that adorn its legs, similar to the rustic trousers worn by local people. This glossy, iridescent bird is truly miniscule, measuring 9cm at most.

The species is so iconic that in June 2005, it was declared the Emblematic Bird of the Metropolitan District of Quito (the capital city of Ecuador). The founding member of Aves y Conservación (BirdLife in Ecuador), Juan Manuel Carrión, strongly advocated for this recognition during his time as City Councillor. His intention was: “To make the species visible, to attract attention in a symbolic way and for the city to have a natural emblem embodied in a bird; as well as encouraging municipal participation in efforts to preserve it”.

This bird needs all the recognition it can get. Its population is estimated not to exceed 1000 individuals, spread across just two sites. One spans the northwestern slope of the Pichincha Volcano. The other was rediscovered in 2006 by the ornithologist Olaf Jahn in the Toisán Range, Imbabura province.

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Reintroduction of Great Green Macaws boosts wild population

Great Green Macaws have disappeared from the Ayampe region some 50 years ago, as a result of loss of its forest habitat to agriculture and ranching and also from the illegal collection for the pet trade. The total number of this species, the second largest macaw in the world (the Hyacinth Macaw is the largest), are thought to be less than 3,500. They feed on seeds, fruits, hard-shelled nuts, and flowers, and will move through the landscape in search of fruiting trees; they are particularly partial to the Pechiche tree, which provides food and nest sites across much of its range in Ecuador. These birds have a great importance on the ecosystem because they help to promote the natural regeneration through seed dispersal.

The release of the six additional individuals on 10 May 10 is the third Great Green Macaw release event and another milestone following three years of collaboration between Fundación Jocotoco, Fundación de rescate Jambelí and Loro Parque Fundación. The video below explains the lengthy process of from chick to release,

World Land Trust
17 June 2019

Source

Immediate action needed to save newly discovered hummingbird

07/02/2019

World Land Trust (WLT) has launched an urgent appeal to save habitat in southern Ecuador frequented by the recently described Blue-throated Hillstar, which is under imminent threat from mining.

The metal-rich landscapes of Ecuador have seen an increase in industrial mining over the past 30 years and mining corporations have recently gained the rights to mine the hillstar's habitat in order to extract metals. Swathes of Ecuador's tropical forests have also been cleared so that metals such as copper, gold and lead can extracted from large open pits, which have proven a disaster for local wildlife.

WLT has launched the Save the Blue-throated Hillstar appeal, which aims to raise £30,000 to enable its partner Naturaleza y Cultura Ecuador (NCE) to extend a Water Protection Area to include the hillstar's 70,000-acre range. By incorporating the hillstar's habitat in this area, it will have government-level protection and will eliminate the threat of mining, saving the rare hummingbird's habitat.

"This is a unique opportunity to save a Critically Endangered species from extinction," said Richard Cuthbert, Director of Conservation at WLT. "If we do not act now, mining corporations can move in on the habitat and create a mine which would most likely wipe out the hillstar population.

"This situation is the perfect example of why habitat conservation is so important. Habitat loss is one of the greatest causes of species extinction worldwide, and for every habitat we lose, we eliminate a stronghold for numerous plant and animal species. For species such as Blue-throated Hillstar, with such a small range, this can mean extinction. The fact that we are continuing to discover new species in habitats facing threats like mining shows that we may not even be aware of the ecological damage these activities are causing."

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Rare Parakeet Gains More Protected Habitat In Ecuador

Reserve Expansion Will Help Create New Ecological Corridor to Conserve Vanishing Cloud Forests

Contact: Jennifer Howard, American Bird Conservancy, 202-888-7472

(Washington, D.C. May 10, 2016) The Ecuadorian nonprofit Fundación Jocotoco, with the support of American Bird Conservancy and U.K.-based international conservation group World Land Trust, has acquired 233 acres (94 hectares) of critically important cloud-forest habitat in Ecuador, home to a rare parakeet—the endangered El Oro Parakeet—as well as El Oro Tapaculo and other rare species. The acquisition expands the existing Buenaventura Reserve from 5,583 acres (2,259 hectares) to 5,816 acres (2,354 hectares), and contributes to the creation of an ecological corridor that will connect Buenventura to three proposed government reserves, encompassing an area 56 miles long.

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New immigrant: Shiny cowbirds noted from a recording altitude of 2,800 m in Ecuador

Date: May 4, 2016

Source: Pensoft Publishers

Two juveniles of Shiny Cowbird, a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, were spotted in the Andean city of Quito, Ecuador, for the first time. This finding represents an altitudinal expansion of approximately 500 m.

Breeding populations might have been prompted by forest fragmentation and/or climate change, suggest the research team, led by Dr Verónica Crespo-Pérez, professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE). Resultingly, the 'immigrants' could be threatening native birds. The study is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

"The Shiny Cowbird is native to the lowlands of South America but within the last 100 years, it has been expanding its distribution to higher altitudes and latitudes" says the lead author.

The bird had already been noted from high altitudes in Bolivia and Perú, and in some localities in the Ecuadorian Andes. Since 2000, Juan Manuel Carrión, co-author and director of the Zoo in Quito, recalls observing Shiny cowbirds near his home in a valley near Quito at 2,300 m above sea level (asl). However, one has never before been reported from an altitude as high as 2,800 m asl.

Moreover, the fact that the observed individuals were juveniles means that the species is already breeding in the city.

"Such a significant expansion of reproductive birds, of approximately 500 m, could be related to human disturbances, like forest fragmentation or climate change," adds Crespo-Pérez.

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Marine preserve to help penguins in a 'predictably unpredictable' place

Date: April 7, 2016 

Source: University of Washington 

Summary: New regulations by the government of Ecuador to protect the waters around the Galapagos Islands as a marine preserve, including main feeding areas for Galapagos penguins. 

Dee Boersma, a conservationist and professor of biology at the University of Washington, is applauding new regulations by the government of Ecuador to protect the waters around the Galapagos Islands as a marine preserve. 

"It is very exciting," said Boersma, who is a finalist for the 2016 Indianapolis Prize for her decades of penguin research and conservation efforts. 

"We've been working for years in the Galapagos, advising officials in Ecuador to protect the fish-rich waters that penguins and other species rely upon for food." 

The decree, signed March 21 by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, prohibits fishing, drilling or mining in key sections of the waters surrounding this precious archipelago -- a hotspot for biodiversity made famous by Charles Darwin when he proposed natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. 

Under Correa's directive, approximately one-third of the waters around the Galapagos will become "no take" areas, where nothing can be extracted or harvested. The volcanic islands, which lie about 600 miles off the coast of South America, boast a rare assortment and diversity of species that evolved on this remote archipelago. Ecuadorean law already protects about 97 percent of the land that makes up the islands, but before last month's decree, only about 1 percent of Galapagos waters were "no take" areas.

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World's highest hummingbird feeding place bought

March 2014: At 5,704 metres the purchase of Hacienda Antisanilla on the west slope of the Antisana Volcano in Ecuador is a crucial step in the restoration of high altitude habitats in the Andes and maintaining a valuable food source for the Chimborazo Hillstar (Oreotrochilus chimborazo), the highest living of all hummingbirds.

Also known as the Ecuadorian hillstar, its diet includes the orange flowered chuquiragua, which thrives at high altitudes and is found growing on under-grazed land at the newly purchased site, Antisanilla.

Antisanilla was acquired by Fundación Jocotoco (FJ), one of World Land Trust’s (WLT) four conservation partners in Ecuador, and together with the adjacent Hacienda Sunfuhuaico, which was purchased by FJ in 2011, the two properties cover nearly 12,500 acres (5,000 hectares) of high Andean páramo.

This area has been heavily grazed by cattle for a very long time, and much of the land is now entirely dominated by stipa grass. However, some patches of stony ground that have been less grazed by cattle retain a much richer flora. With a variety of small trees, shrubs and flowers, these areas are likely to resemble the region's original vegetation.

“Antisanilla, and the adjacent Sunfuhuaico will be an exciting challenge for restoration of the páramo to its original diversity of grasses, flowers, and shrubs,” said Nigel Simpson, Trustee of both FJ and WLT. “Some 5 to 10 per cent of the property is high diversity habitat, which will provide the raw material for a long term restoration programme in conjunction with a change of grazing practices, including eventually the reintroduction of previously native camellids.”

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ecuador-014%20.html

Andean condors protected by land purchase

January 2014: More than 270,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat in Ecuador has been purchased by the Rainforest Trust. The mammoth property acquisition, which includes the 18,714-foot Antisana Volcano, will create a permanent refuge for the largest population of Andean Condor in the Northern Andes.

The final 6,100 acre property, called Hacienda Antisanilla, was acquired today to complete a project by Rainforest Trust with Fundación Jocotoco, the Municipality of Quito, and the Quito Water Authority in a coordinated effort that will both protect endangered species and secure an important source of drinking water for Ecuador’s capital city.

“The purchase of multiple properties around Volcan Antisana represents one of the greatest conservation victories ever in the Andes of South America,” said Dr. Robert Ridgely, President of Rainforest Trust and a driving force behind this conservation success. “The final acquisition of Hacienda Antisanilla caps a decade-long effort by Rainforest Trust and our Ecuadorian partner Fundación Jocotoco to protect this fragile and biodiverse ecosystem. We are grateful to all of the partners, organizations and donors who made this possible, including The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, who provided critical support to acquire the Hacienda Antisanilla property.”

Read on

Chester Zoo sends an expedition to search for a rare parrot in Ecuador

January 2014: A team of 10 experienced conservationists, bird and horticultural experts, depart this month to survey the remote Cerro Blanco Forest in South West Ecuador, with the aim of tracking down and collecting vital data on the Ecuador Amazon parrot.

Until recently, the Ecuador Amazon parrot was considered to be part of a group and therefore not seen as a conservation priority, but it has been newly recognised as a species in its own right.

Years of research by the zoo’s director general, Dr Mark Pilgrim, has led to its reclassification, and a conservation action-plan is now being put in place.

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Birds On Repeat: Do Birdwatchers Playbacks Hurt Fowl?

Oct. 16, 2013 — In the forests of Ecuador, plain-tailed wrens nest in bamboo thickets, singing complex and continuous melodies. Residing nearby are rufous antpittas, small, secretive birds that hop like thrushes and whistle in mossy forests. Together, their songs fill parts of the South American Andes.

Birdwatchers often seek out rare and beautiful birds like the wren and antpitta using "playbacks" -- or recordings of bird songs -- to draw such them out from their hideaways. But does such babbling-on-repeat harm the birds?

Using the emphatic sounds of both bird species, a Princeton University researcher has -- for the first time in peer-reviewed research -- examined the effects of birdwatchers' "playbacks" in the wild. In PLOS One, he shows that playbacks do have potentially negative consequences, especially in terms of birds' energies.

"Playbacks would be harmful if a species becomes stressed, expends energy, or takes time away from other activities to respond to these recordings," said J. Berton C. Harris, a postdoctoral fellow studying under Professor David Wilcove from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs' Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy.

Working in a southern Ecuadorian biological reserve, Harris studied the effects of both single and repeated playbacks on wrens and antpittas. In his first trial, he introduced single playbacks to 24 groups of wrens and 12 groups of antpittas. Along with David Haskell from the University of the South in Tennessee, Harris monitored both bird species for one hour after playing a five-minute, self-recorded song.

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Andean Condor in Ecuador fitted with satellite tracking transmitter for first time

Endangered bird rescued, rehabilitated and released

August 2013. Wearing identification tag #1 on his wing, a young Andean Condor was released into the wild on high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, where he has become a national symbol for the effort to save the species from extinction.

Critically Endangered in Ecuador

It was the first time that a condor in Ecuador - where the birds are critically endangered - has been released with a satellite transmitter. Andean Condors are listed as "Near Threatened" on the IUCN Red List. The device will allow biologists to track his movements and study condor habitat requirements, foraging behaviour, and roosting sites.

"This is an important first step in better understanding the status of the Andean Condor in Ecuador," said J. Peter Jenny, president of The Peregrine Fund, an Idaho-based conservation group that is helping to fund the study.

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Symbiotic survival of rare birds and rain forests

On the coast of Ecuador, along the Pacific Ocean, on the western side of the Andes Mountains, lies the Choco rain forest. Here, Jordan Karubian, his students and local residents, whom he’s enlisted as “environmental ambassadors,” study an endangered species of bird — the long-wattled umbrellabird.
Karubian, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University, is looking at how the long-wattled umbrellabird eats the fruits of rain forest trees and disperses their seeds. “The trees depend upon that dispersal in order to propagate and replace themselves,” says Karubian.

He is researching the mating habits, seed-dispersal activities and migratory patterns of birds in Ecuador, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Gulf South of the United States.

The birds that Karubian studies dwell in fragile ecosystems that are in peril. And he has discovered that to have a lasting impact on protecting the birds and their habitats from disappearance, he must do more than function as a traditional researcher.
Continued: http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/092812_karubian.cfm