Watch over a migrating bird in Central America!

Your generosity helps us to protect birds and their habitats so that migratory birds can return to their nesting areas in North America. Thank you. 

Over the past four months, your support enabled us to visit three separate wetland sites in the dry forests of Eastern El Salvador on a monthly basis. There, we registered 45 willow flycatchers observations, including 8 individual birds at one site. In addition, dozens of migratory and resident species were documented such as the painted bunting, western tanager, yellow warbler, and scissort-tail flycather. To protect habitats at these wetlands, we work with local fisherman to clean-up abandoned fishing gear, and to clear fields and plant their first crop of the season in late April after birds like flycatchers have departed for the north. 

In Nicaragua, you helped us survey migratory birds during two months at our MoSI banding stations. We hope to restart these stations in the fall given that over the decade that we have run them, we have collected valuable data about population trends in migratory birds. Two of the photos here are of resident birds netted at the MoSI station. The MoSI data is complex and it gets pools with data from stations across the region by scientists at the Intsitute for Bird Populations. However, we perceive a decline in forest species like painted buntings and this is concerning. It reminds us that your support for our forest protection work at Mono Bayo Reserve is especially vital. 

Your support also add to support provided by Southern Wings, and enables us to increase and expand our monitoring of birds through the MOTUS network, a series of radio-signal receiving stations that can receive signals from radio-tagged birds. With in-country partners, we plant to install five of them in El Salvador (2), Honduras (1), and Guatemala (2) this spring. 

Finally, we are excited to share that a project is underway to document King Vultures, and their habitat areas in Nicaragua and El Salvador. These are the largest vultures of Central America, and their health and survival is so important for the ecosystem. This project is supported by the Tracy Aviary, and also through your generous support of our birding staff. 

Thank you for your continued support and for caring about what happens to the birds.

Dear Friend,

This fall was a busy time for the birds. In Nicaragua, we celebrated October Big Day, an annual event organised by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology to gather important data about birds by recording as many bird species as possible around the world. Each year, data is compared with the aim of recording numbers of species and numbers of birds within species. This gives a clearer picture of where bird populations are declining and where they are increasing. With your support, sixty-eight Paso Pacifico members and community volunteeres participated on our team in Nicaragua, recording 322 different species in just one day! These numbers highlight the impact that your investment in Paso Pacifico can have a biodiversity. 

This fall, our Executive Director visited Central America and took equipment donated bhy the Institute of Bird Populations including mist nets and bird-banding tools.These are now being used by at our two bird-banding stations in Nicaragua.

The two banding stations help us to learn about year to year survivorship of birds, and also helps us to get to know their behavior during the winter months because we recapture certain birds that stick around in the same forest area, month after month. In previous years, we have had birds return to the same station 5 years in a row! This fall we included a student from the Natioanal Autonomous University of Managua (UNAM) in the field work as a way to build skill and capacity for the organization. This is the 10th year we have contributed to this study of migratory birds.The data collected has been included in a paper, currently under scientific review, which will eventually be published. These are jways in which your contributions are being used to help protect birds during their migration. 

Unfortunately, institutional funding for the work in Nicaragua has been terminated due to federal budget cuts. Therefore, the future of the Paso Pacifico bird banding stations is uncertain. Please consider making a gift this Giving Tuesday so that we can keep the station through the whole winter and to support our 10th annual Christmas Bird Count. 

Sincerely,