PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Peace Corps
Diurnal Raptors/Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
Cerulean Warblers
Canopy Bird Communities
Honduran Emerald

The first time I arrived in Honduras was in 1991, as a volunteer for the PEACE CORPS. I worked first in Refugio de Vida Silvestre Texiguat on the north coast, and then in Parque Nacional Sierra de Agalta in depto. Olancho. My chief duty was to promote conservation awareness to campesino farmers who did not appreciate the value of a (living) forest. I worked closely with Honduran professionals, giving them training in park management and conservation ecology, and learning much from them in return. I also explored the beautiful mountains and cloud forests of the parks, and helped Mark Bonta compile the first comprehensive regional bird list for the Agalta bioregion– now at over 400 species. With Francisco Urbina, I documented the first two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) for Honduras.

I returned to Honduras in 1996 to study LANDSCAPE HETEROGENEITY and RAPTOR SPECIES DIVERSITY in the remote Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve. I specifically looked at how native Amerindian agriculture diversified the landscape, and how, in turn, the avian community responded to these changes. I measured classic community parameters – density, diversity, and abundance – of birds of prey, because of their role as keystone species and biological indicators. Connell’s intermediate disturbance hypothesis was an overarching theme of this work. I conducted surveys from the tops of canopy-emergent trees to characterize the avifauna of the lowland rain forest. I lived a year in the village of Las Marías, home to the Pech and Miskito Indians. I returned to Honduras for half a year in 1999 to the Río Patuca, where I lived in the Tawahka Indian village of Krausirpe, and conducted raptor surveys for The Peregrine Fund of Boise, Idaho.

In 2005 I began a multi-year project with Melinda Welton, Research Associate of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, on CERULEAN WARBLER stopover ecology in Central America. The migration routes and stopover ecology of this species are pretty much unknown. Honduras had more historical records than any other country, and we set out to test Ted Parker’s hypothesis that the entire world population of this species passes through lower montane forests of the Caribbean slope of northern Central America during the first two weeks of April. As of 2007 we have worked in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and southern Mexico. We are confirming that this narrow geographic zone is vital to Cerulean Warblers during migration. The highlight of the entire project has been working with local biologists, including a workshop we held in P. N. La Tigra in 2005 that focused on standardizing survey techniques and identification of Nearctic migrants. Honduras has a growing cadre of young biologists, and I encourage Neotropical ornithologists to work with these people. Give Honduras a try.

In 2006 I began a year and a half of CANOPY RESEARCH in the lowland rain forests of Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, Honduras, for my Ph.D. dissertation at LSU. My dissertation has three parts: 1) test ground- and canopy-based methods for censusing canopy birds; 2) describe patterns of canopy bird divesity over space and time, and 3) explain the processes that allow a large influx of Nearctic migrants every year. I conducted over 80 bird surveys from the ground and from the tops of 30 canopy trees, accumulating over 5,000 individual bird observations. I am now working on data analysis and writing my dissertation and manuscripts.

The HONDURAN EMERALD Amazilia luciae is a Critically Endangered hummingbird species, and is one of the most endangered birds in the Americas. It is also the only bird endemic to the Republic of Honduras. I serve on the Honduran Emerald Working Group. We form a collaborative partnership of individuals and organizations from both the U.S. and Honduras. Our efforts focus on finding new populations, and collavorating with governmental and nongovernmental institutions to implement conservation programs for the species. We use overflights in search of unknown forest remnants suitable for the Honduran Emerald, and follow these with ground surveys in search of new populations. In 2007 we found the species in the Telica Valley, depto. Olancho. In 2008 we rediscovered the species in the western department of Santa Barbara, where is was last seen in 1935. Please link to The Hummingbird Society for more information on the species.

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