Research TopicsWildlife & Fish: Bird Monitoring
Costa Rica Bird Communities: Neotropical Migrants and Resident Birds
 Since
1994, we have conducted research at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, in association
with the Caribbean
Conservation Corporation and other cooperators. Our primary objective
is to help establish a long-term monitoring site for
the study of neotropical migrant and resident landbirds
with the collaboration of Costa Ricans to further the knowledge and understanding
of Costa Rican birds. When the station was begun, it was the only operation
to our knowledge regularly monitoring the landbirds of the country on
a consistent basis.
Take a look at our compiled listing "Checklist
to the birds of Tortuguero" for some of the birds our participants
have encountered, and an account of an intern's stay at the banding station
in "A season of bird monitoring
in Costa Rica."
Internships available: If you are interested
in being an intern for our project, please read our
information for interns for dates and requirements.
We presented some of our findings at the 2002 International Partners
in Flight Conference held in Asilomar, California. The links to our
presentation and resulting publication are below, along with some additional
information on bird monitoring.
Presentation
Publications
- Ralph, C.J., M.J. Widowson, R.I. Frey, P.A. Herrera, and B.P. O'Donnell.
2005. An Overview
of a Landbird Monitoring Program at Tortuguero, on the Caribbean Coast
of Costa Rica. pp. 831-838 in C. John Ralph and Terrell D. Rich,
editors. Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas:
Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference.
2002 March 20-24; Asilomar, California; Volume 2. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191.
Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
- Maglianesi, M.A. 2004. Caracterización
de la comunidad de aves de un bosque tropical muy húmedo en el
Caribe norte de Costa Rica. M.S. Thesis, Universidad Nacional, Heredia,
Costa Rica.
- Solano, A., C.J. Ralph, and P.A. Herrera. 2005. El
Proyecto Integrado de Monitoreo de Aves de Tortuguero: más de
10 años en el estudio y conservación de aves migratorias
y residentes neotropicales. Zeledonia 9(2)76-82.
- Maglianesi, M. A. 2007. Aves y características de hábitat
en un bosque tropical muy húmedo en el Caribe costarricense.
Amientales 33: 2-12. Available at: http://www.ambientico.una.ac.cr/A33.pdf.
- Wolfe, J.D. and C.J. Ralph. 2008. Catorce años de anillamiento
de aves en Costa Rica: una visión general del Proyecto Integral
de Monitoreo de Aves de Tortuguero. Mesoamericana 12(3):171.
- Elizondo, P., C.J. Ralph, J.D. Wolfe, y A.O. Ramírez. 2009. Está
la proporción de sexos de una población relacionada con el decrecimiento
de la capturabilidad? Mesoamericana 13(2): 101 pág.
- Wolfe J.D., Pyle, P. and C.J. Ralph. 2009. Breeding
seasons, molt patterns, and gender and age criteria for selected northeastern
Costa Rican resident landbirds. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 121(3):556–567.
- Wolfe, J.D. and C.J. Ralph. 2009. Correlations
between El Niño-Southern Oscillation and changes in nearctic-neotropic migrant
condition in Central America. The Auk 126(4):809-814.
Monitoring protocols
- C. John Ralph, Geoffrey Geupel, Peter Pyle, Thomas Martin, and David
DeSante. 1993. Handbook
of Field Methods for Monitoring Landbirds. PSW-GTR-144.
- Ralph, C.J., M. Widdowson, B. Widdowson, B. O’Donnell, and R.I.
Frey. 2008. Tortuguero
Bird Monitoring Station Protocol for the Tortuguero Integrated Bird
Monitoring Program. U.S. Forest Service, Redwood Sciences Laboratory,
Arcata, California. 61 pp.
"And the turtles of course...all the turtles
are free.
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should
be." - Dr. Seuss
Last modified by L.L. Long
Research is being conducted by:
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