INTERESTS

My interests in ornithology are grounded in ECOLOGY: I follow interactions between organisims and their environments - or organisms and each other - that I can see with my naked eye. I am interested in SPECIES DIVERSITY on several fronts: (1) canopy bird assemblages, especially in tropical forests; (2) the effects of native Amerindians on the distribution of species and species richness over time and space. I am intrigued by AVIAN BIOGEOGRAPHY in Central America. Little has been done in this field. We know that at least 60 species of birds reach their northern range limits in eastern Honduras, but no one knows the historical reasons why this is so.

CONSERVATION is important to me. The tropics are the center of the world's biodiversity and are being destroyed rapidly. Conservation is almost always a theme in my research. I have been involved for three years in studying the stopover ecology of the declining Cerulean Warbler in Central America.

I am terribly concerned about the future well-being of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve in the MOSKITIA of Honduras. Encroachment by landless ladino immigrants and illegal, unsustainable land uses are threatening this unique and splendid place. I wish to become an authority on all things pertaining to the Honduran Moskitia: bird distributions, human culture and language, history, ecology.

As is obvious by now, I work chiefly in HONDURAS, CENTRAL AMERICA, where I first arrived as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There is something about this country and its tropical forests that keeps me coming back.

Two aspirations are to be recognized as an authority on Honduran birds and on the ecology of forest canopies. I have a growing list of published articles on Honduran birds and in 2002 I co-authored “Birding Honduras: A Checklist and Guide” with Mark Bonta. In 2006 and 2007 I climbed over 50 trees in Pico Bonito National Park for my dissertation research on canopy birds. It's a start.

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