SAVING THE LAND AND THE BIRDS

The Partnership for International Birding and the Rainforest Trust are working together to preserve some of the precious remaining native habitat in northern Columbia. This species-rich rainforest is in the Serrania de Perija, a 200-mile long mountain range that has peaks over 10,000 feet high. This is the northernmost finger of the Andes.
The area is home to numerous endemic bird and plants species. Not extensively explored, the area is expected to yield many more new species over the coming years.

The donations from PIB are part of our commitment to birds, our birding friends and the planet itself. We not only want our birders to see many birds but we want to be sure those birds and their habitat are still around for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. The best way to do this is own the land. Thus we have made a $3000 donation to Rainforest Trust and are hoping to make that a total of $5000 in the new year, insuring the Trust’s ability to buy 100 acres in the Serrania. Director of the Rainforest Trust, Dr. Paul Salaman, says the Partnership for International Birding helped to get the ball rolling on this project.

PIB has made the first targeted donation for the Serrania project and that will enable the first land purchase in that area. You could say we’re in on the ground floor, high in the mountains.

We at PIB are very pleased to be working with the Rainforest Trust (formerly the US-World Land Trust) in supporting their efforts to preserve wilderness for bird and wildlife conservation. We truly want to thank our trip participants and other conservation partners for supporting this effort.

WHAT’S THERE?

Much of the forest and paramo has been burnt, logged or planted in exotic trees. But enough remains that fragile ecosystems can be saved. ProAves has recently surveyed the area.

Studies have relocated the two endangered and endemic species, the Perijá Thistletail and Perijá Metaltail, and established the Perijá Brush-finch, while finding several new bird species for science, including a new Atlapetes Brush-finch, a new Scytalopus Tapaculo, a new Megascops Screech-owl, and a Cranioleuca Spinetail. Several other taxa endemic to the Perijá mountains are almost certainly separate biological and phylogenetic species (i.e. the Rufous Antpitta Grallaria “rufula” saltuensis, the Oleagineous Hemispingus Hemispingus “frontalis” flavidorsalis, to name but a few).
PERIJA THISTLETAIL, Asthenes perijana. This small overbird is found nowhere else on earth. It’s closely related to some canastero species found further south.

Despite its unique fauna and flora, no protected area yet exists in Colombia’s Serranía de Perijá. So we and our birding friends can now know that we are helping begin an urgent project that will protect, for the first time, an endangered habitat and the wide variety of species that depend on it.

Click here to learn more about Rainforest Trust’s Serrania project.

2012 IS THE YEAR YOU GET THE BIRDS!

Partnershipfor International Birding now has 80 trips scheduled for 2012 with a score more in the works.  Check out our website for the list.  We can take you to almost every birdable cranny of the planet.  And you’ll be in small groups, not with a busload.

AFRICA:  We now have trips to Gambia, South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda. There are many birds you’ll never see if you don’t get to Africa.

This four-foot high, pedestrian pelican is the Shoebill.  He lives in papyrus swamps around Lake Victoria in Uganda.  Once we’d seen this guy at eye-level from our small canoe the other hundreds of birds, the numerous antelope species, the elephants, the warthogs digging up the lawn…those were all a bonus.  Shoebill is the single best reason to bird Uganda.  He won’t show up as a vagrant at Cape May.

ASIA: India, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia.

In all our overseas trips we use only the best local guides.  We stay in local eco-lodges.  And we plan these trips with your lifelist in mind.  And we can get you to six continents and then get you to the birds you want to see.

This colorful character is the Masked Trogon female.  She liked hunting outside our breakfast hall at one Ecaudoran lodge.

LATIN AMERICA; Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina,
Guyana.  And our Ecuador trips can include a few days in the amazing world of Darwin’s Galapagos.

OCEANA: New Zealand and Australia, where the endemics are pandemic.  Don’t you want a couple Kiwis and a Kookabura on your life list?

We can put together custom trips for your small group of birding friends so you get the time to find your target birds.

NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE.  Of course we also provide great trips in the U.S. From Lark Bunting to Hermit Warbler.  From Sprague’s Pipit to Cassin’s Auklet, we have the trip you need to fill out your lifelist.  North Dakota, Colorado, Pacific Northwest for winter specialties from the Arctic, Northern California, Tennessee in spring.  If you hanker after some of Europe’s goodies, we can plan your trip for Great-crested Grebe, Black and Red Kite, Hoopoe or Wallcreeper.  From Spain to the U.K.  Or from Turkey to France, we have your ideal bird trip to the Old World.  Below: a Common Shelduck at the Camargue in southern France.  Then a Pied Wagtail playing the ancient field at Stonehenge.

Colombia Joins the Ecotourist Trade In a Big Way

I got a chance to talk with John Drummond, a PIB partner.  He told me his recent trip to Colombia was a huge success in every way.  Acting as trip host, Drummond worked with Lelis Navarette and the Neblina Forest Tours team to see over 500 species.  That’s more than a fine birder could expect in a full year birding any state in the U.S.  In Colombia it took  less than 3 weeks to see 523 species, hear another four dozen.  And endemics?

THREE DOZEN ENDEMICS WERE SEEN.  BIRDS NOT POSSIBLE ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH.

Click here for information on upcoming PIB trips to Colombia with Neblina Forest Tours.

If you’d like to savor the complete trip report with locations for many of the 523 species seen, email: charles@pibird.com.

Photos top to bottom: Endemic Yellow-crowned Whitestart, found in the Santa Marta Mountains of eastern Colombia;  Golden-ringed Tanager; Indigo-capped Hummingbird; ourPIB birders having to sit quietly as hummers buzz around feeders at an eco-lodge.  Tough birding, huh?

All these fine photos taken on recent trip by John Drummond.

PIB Loves Colombia Birding, and You Will Too

It’s a Yellow-eared Parrot.

Not one you’ll get for your life list in Arizona or even L. A.

Pictures are wonderful, thanks to lightweight digital cameras.  But this guy you want to see for yourself.  Neblina is PIB’s partner in the Colombian tours and they sent a scouting team across the hotspots you could see on one of our several trips.  The first one is in April of this year but we have another half dozen before the end of 2010.  We love Colombia birding.

They actually saw more than just this one parrot on their scouting trip.  On their first day out, “We  started driving up a road  to higher elevations. Our first stop was made near Jardin.  Here we observed:  Yellow-faced Grassquit, Blue–necked Tanager, heard White–throated Crake near the road, Black and White Seedeater, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Southern Lapwing,  among other open field birds.”

Later in the trip, they spent a morning in lush jungle.

“We began a walk on a trail in the very lush Chusquea forest with an incredible number of bromeliads. This is a fine trail, but due to the heavy rain during the night before, it was a bit quiet. After some time and patience we saw: Three – striped  Warbler, Slate-throasted Whitestart, Yellow–throated Bush Tanager, Azara’s Spinetail, Unicolored Tapaculo.

 “After these birds, and a hike up a hill, Manuel [Neblina guide] spotted the Moustached Puffbird.  It was such a great bird and we all got fine scope views.  After almost 4 hours walking we were please to see the bird of the day,  Parker’s Antbird, both male and female. This bird has such bizarre  behavior.” 

The Parker’s is a Colombian endemic and considered a threatened species.

That’s why we like working with Neblina, they know their territory and keep abreast of any changes in local birding locations.  Nothing beats local knowledge when you’re looking for birds with limited range or specific habtat needs.

Bird the World With the Pros

Partnership for International Birding puts together small groups for great trips to Latin America and Africa.  This could be your chance to really see dozens of new bird species in exotic, dramatic countries.   We work hard to keep both the price and the size of the group as low as practical.  Most of our trips include fewer than a dozen birders so you don’t get stuck in the back of a huge bus while the first off see the fleeting rarities.

We also do some short trips to the hot spots of North America from Arizona and North Dakota to the Pacific Coast.  Check out our list of great trips.

There’s still time to get into our trip to Colombia this spring.

Want to add a Shoebill to your life list?  Try our Uganda trip in the autumn.