New 7 Wonders of Nature

Atitlan Lake

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Have you heard about the New 7 Wonders of Nature? It’s a global campaign to choose 7 nature sites to declare them Treasures of the World.
Atitlan Lake is a nominated candidate for this contest and it makes sense due to the beautiful views you can get in every angle you have of it. But birders have a better reason to support this nomination: the incredible bird diversity.

Resplendent Quetzal

Only around Atitlan Lake you can tick in a couple of days an amazing bird list like this:
Belted Flycatcher
Azure-rumped Tanager
Horned Guan
Resplendent Quetzal
Blue-tailed Hummingbird
Slender Sheartail
Rufous Sabrewing
Bar-winged Oriole
Bushy-crested Jay
Pink-headed Warbler
Hooded Grosbeak
Highland Guan
Green-throated Mountain-gem
Blue-throated Motmot
Rufous-collared Robin
Black Robin
Black-capped Swallow
Rufous-browed Wren
Black-throated Jay
Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo
Prevost’s Ground-sparrow
Unicolored Jay
Yellow-eyed Junco
Black-capped Siskin
Northern Flicker (Guatemalan race)
Long-tailed Manakin and more than 150 bird species more…

Rufous-collared Robin

Do you agree? So please join us and vote for Atitlan Lake… for the right reason.

Bushy-crested Jay

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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MoSI

Black-throated Green-warbler (female)

Photo by Maynor Ovando

MoSI is the abbreviation for Monitoreo de Sobreviviencia Invernal - Monitoring Overwintering Survival Program is a research managed by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) along Latin America to estimate statistics of overwintering and survival rates and indices of physical conditions of a group of 25 target bird species.
The MoSI program is based in a protocol of 5 pulses of mist net operation in an area of at least 20 ha, called a “MoSI Station”. This station is placed in a habitat of interest where the target bird species can be captured in good numbers.

Wing feather examination

Photo by Maynor Ovando

A pulse is equivalent to 16 mist nets operated during 3 consecutive days; it means 15 days of work for a winter season. The protocol ask for specific information like weight, sex, age (determined by feather examination and skull pneumatization) and finally banding individuals to track them in future pulses.

All data collected are sent to IBP to analyze them and take the proper actions in conservation efforts.

Banding birds for monitoring

Photo by Maynor Ovando

Guatemala has been part of this program and many ornithologists an birders has been involved in training workshops to collaborate with this important task. These pictures were taken in a MoSI station in a pine-oak forest in Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve.

Posted by Maynor Ovando

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American Ornithologists’ Union

American Ornithologists' Union Website

This organization commonly called AOU is the oldest one in America dedicated to the formal study of birds. This year the AOU celebrates its 125th Anniversary, during these years its members have developed an extended and diverse ornithological society open to scientific ornithologists, students, conservationists and birders.

The AOU website provide excellent information about birds in North America and one of the most important work shared is the Check-list of North and South American Birds. The Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of North and Middle American Birds produces an official Check-list of North American Birds, with the purpose of creating a standard classification and nomenclature.

Actually the check-list includes 2046 bird species known in the geographic area from North Pole to boundary shared by Panama and Colombia, including Hawaiian Islands and some Antillean Islands.

Every year Guatemalans check the publication proposed for AOU Committee in order to maintain update our bird lists, because in the last two years changes have affected birds regional endemic to North Central America, like splitting genera Megascops from Otus, which means that the new scientific name of the Bearded Screech-Owl is Mesgascops barbarus; or genus Asturina merged into Buteo which changes the scientific name of a common raptor in Guatemala, GrayHawk, to Buteo nitidus.

Gray Hawk (Buteo nitidus)

Posted by Maynor Ovando


http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/ is a registered trademark of Martsam Tour & Travel Copyright® 2,008
http://www.birdwatchingguatemala.com/
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