Monitoring Winter Survival

Bird research in the tropical forests of Nicaragua

by Kristi Streiffert
Photographs by Tom Streiffert

Author Kristi Streiffert checking mist nets

The American Pygmy Kingfisher in my hand made it hard for me to remember why I was here. Although it was almost as tiny as a hummingbird, it had an attention-getting bill. Moments later I was excitedly snapping a picture of a Passerini's Tanager that had been captured in the mist nets we were monitoring.

But wait, I'm not here to observe Central America's resident birds.

Hey, is that a Bronzy Hermit?

Researchers at Los Guauzos Preserve in the lowlands of southern Nicaragua band newly trapped songbirds for the MoSI program. Head nets or bandanas over the mouth were necessary equipment in the buggy conditions of the forest.

Right, right. Back on task. I am in Nicaragua's Los Guatuzos Preserve, just north of the Costa Rican border, to help bird researcher Heydee Herrera with the MoSI Program. The initials stand for Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal in Spanish, and in English, Monitoring Overwintering Survival. Researchers set up mist nets in a variety of distinct habitats, then capture Neotropical migratory birds that winter there, record data about each bird, and band them for future study before releasing them. The researchers also capture and record data on resident birds—the ones so enchanting to me and other visitors—and are working on a protocol to include them in studies, too. The work takes place for two or three days a month for three to five months between November and March.

Above, a patchwork of forest in the highlands of Nicaragua. Poverty-stricken residents scratch out a living by clearing forests for cattle grazing and subsistence farming.

This program, a spin-off from the Institute for Bird Population's very successful Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program, is in its infancy and can use all the help it can get—even from amateurs like me. As with MAPS (which during the breeding season in North America has 500 monitoring stations to research migratory birds), the goal of banding and data collection is ultimately aimed at helping land managers make effective decisions to counteract declines in migratory bird populations.

But unlike MAPS, MoSI has only 80 stations, most of which are struggling with staffing, funding, and complicated logistics. MoSI's efforts are focused on Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands, where the majority of Neotropical migratory birds spend the winter. These areas, unfortunately, continue to struggle with poverty and escalating environmental degradation.

David DeSante, executive director of the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), which spearheads both MAPS and MoSI, expresses the unequivocal urgency of the situation. Migratory bird populations "are going to keep slowly declining unless we really start addressing the problems in the tropics." IBP points out that tropical deforestation and habitat degradation are grave threats in the Mexican and Central American areas that MoSI covers. Not only that, but global climate change will probably damage many highly specialized habitat relationships in the Neotropics.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which oversees some of the funding for MoSI, notes that "data suggest that long-term population trends of forest-inhabiting migratory birds are primarily driven by their winter survival rates." DeSante puts it even more bluntly. "Of all the funds spent to address declines in migratory species, the vast majority is spent on the birds' breeding grounds. Now, if the bottleneck is winter survival, and you put all your efforts into increasing hatchlings, you are just increasing the number of birds that die each winter."

Author Kristi Streiffert with boatman and MoSI assistant Raul Aquilar travels along the Rio Frio between MoSI stations in southern Nicaragua.

In Mexico and Nicaragua, where I have lived for the past five years, I've seen firsthand the crushing daily struggle of the people to find work and to come up with enough money for food, clothing, and education. Although some Central American nations are starting to see their dreams of economic viability come true, many people throughout the region remain extremely poor. According to the World Bank, the yearly GNI (gross national income) per person for Mexico is $6,790, compared with $41,440 for the United States. But Mexico is rich compared with Honduras and Nicaragua, where the GNIs are $1,040 and $830, respectively.

This economic reality directly affects both bird habitat and research. Conditions are difficult for local researchers, who don't have steady paychecks. They live and work in circumstances that would be trying for most Americans. Though the locations where they conduct research are rich and varied, ranging from coastal mangroves to cloud forest to dry tropical forest, these lands are under constant pressure from squatters looking for a place to eke out a living.

To reach the MoSI station I visited, Heydee Herrera and I had traveled in my SUV from Managua (Nicaragua's capital) for two hours by paved road, then five hours along a wide, rutted dirt track. Next we boarded a small boat made available to me by a local conservation group on the condition that I pay for gas. We traveled for another two hours to get across Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America) before wending our way up the Papaturro River and finally arriving at a tiny community without roads or electricity. Though for me the trip was a long, tiring adventure, for Herrera, it was the height of luxury. She usually takes one of the big ramshackle buses that leave Managua early in the morning and arrives at the lake nearly 10 hours later, then spends the night in the lakeshore town of San Carlos to catch the twice-weekly public boat that lands in Papaturro after five puttering hours. After spending two days at one station, she catches another public boat to her second station, monitors that for two days, and then repeats the long bus ride back to Managua.

Heydee Herrera (above), the biologist in charge of the Los Guatuzos monitoring station, fills out MoSI data sheets on the birds they trap.

Due to a lack of funds, she does all of this on essentially a volunteer basis, though she is a trained biologist. Each MoSI station was supported in 2005–06 by a grant of $640. This funding, which covers staffing, transportation, and equipment, is a hodgepodge of cooperation. One of the biggest funding sources is a matching grants program received through the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Grants Program, administered by USFWS. MoSI's funding still would not come anywhere near to supporting the program if it were not for the unpaid participation of Latin American field ornithologists and biology students, along with some additional money cobbled together from various academic and conservation organizations. It is estimated that the program would be more sustainable with around $2,000–$3,000 per station. As DeSante says, "The biggest difference between MAPS and MoSI is that most MAPS stations receive support from an organization or location, such as an Audubon reserve, forest preserve, or state park, and there is money in their budgets to support the research." Many of these Canadian and American locations even have paid researchers on staff.

Claudia Romo, the MoSI coordinator for Mexico, fears that lack of funds could jeopardize MoSI. "The funding we get is very little considering the importance of this project," she writes in an email. "I do not consider it fair that, though our project is [supporting] the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, we get a very small quantity of money to support us. We urgently need more funding to keep this project going."

Salvadora Morales, MoSI coordinator for Central America, expresses concerns similar to Romo's. Almost all of the ornithologists in Nicaragua (there are fewer than a dozen by even the most liberal definition of ornithologist) have to support themselves with other full-time employment, such as teaching school. For example, in addition to being MoSI's coordinator for Central America (which pays a stipend of $1,600 per year), Morales worked at a city government office until a recent Nature Conservancy grant to study the Golden-cheeked Warbler promised her at least six months of stable income per year. "It is very difficult to hold down a job and run a MoSI station. You can't tell your employer that you need a few days off from work each month for five months out of the year."

Manning the stations on weekends, as most volunteers in the United States would do, isn't a good option. For one thing, many Latin American jobs require employees to work half a day on Saturdays. For another, it takes a day's travel by bus to reach the MoSI stations.

The logistics are not insurmountable, "but this worries me a lot," says IBP's director DeSante. "We have well-trained biologists in Central America, but it is hard for them to continue without stable work."

But Peter Pyle, author of a handbook titled Identification Guide to North American Birds, has trained many of the banders and says that the strong commitment of Central American bird researchers offsets the fact that they have to struggle to find stable incomes. "The best part of my career is being able to help train Nicaraguans and others who have such enthusiasm and good will. They have the passion and enthusiasm to get this done." And, indeed, Morales is full of fundraising plans for next year. "I want to organize a birding marathon, like one that was held in El Salvador this year." She also hopes that birding-oriented ecotourism will flourish and begin to raise funding support from tour operators and ecotourists.

Herrera’s field assistant, Raul Aquilar (above), is learning the finer points of data collection.

Pyle says that these researchers understand that "the value of what they are doing is well worth the effort and personal sacrifice, which in this case is relatively small in comparison with what they deal with on a day-to-day basis."

As with Pyle, my favorite moments in Central America have been those spent with bird researchers such as Heydee Herrera and others. These indomitable young men and women inspired me during my time in Nicaragua to try to visit each of the MoSI stations in the country. I trekked from organic coffee plantations to lowland dry tropical forests to the top of a volcano with cloud forests, just for the opportunity to spend time with these devoted bird conservationists. (Okay, maybe the chance of seeing an Emerald-chinned Hummingbird and a Mountain Elaenia figured into my travel plans, too.)

It was an education in many ways. For one thing, after visiting seven monitoring stations in Nicaragua, I think I may finally stop perceiving White-eyed Vireos, American Redstarts, and Indigo Buntings as North American species and see them as they really are—winged creatures with an astounding ability to be equally at home in two vastly different settings. The Central American ornithologists I met told me that studying these birds is a privilege and a pleasure. For one thing, they aren't that common—fewer than 20 percent of the birds they capture in MoSI mist nets are Neotropical migrants. Birds such as Tennessee Warblers, Ovenbirds, and Wood Thrushes are always greeted with particular excitement. "After all," says Morales, "these birds are here with us seven or eight months of the year, and they are an integral part of the avifauna of our region."

This Wood Thrush was one of the few migratory birds captured during the author’s watch. Even though migratory birds are the target of the MoSI investigations, few of the birds captured are migrants.

A birder hikes the trails of Finca Esperanza Verde, where researchers are beginning to document migratory bird populations. Researchers will use the data they gather to improve habitat management in the region.

Spending time with MoSI researchers, helping to monitor 16 nets several times a day and seeing the researchers record page after page of data, I wondered how all these marks and letters on sheets of paper could be reduced into something useful. Can a set of codes really explain how delicately beautiful a Tennessee Warbler is and how important just one bird—held in the hand—can seem? Can that set of codes be combined with countless others and made into something meaningful?

This is where the Institute for Bird Populations comes in. "After the MoSI researchers send us the information they've gathered, it is verified, then analyzed," says DeSante. Eventually researchers hope to show overwinter survival as functions of age, sex, habitat, geographic location, and weather. It is then that the results and analysis can be used to formulate management strategies for wintering grounds.

When you are in the field with MoSI researchers, fending off mosquitoes and craning your neck to watch monkeys, which are just as avidly watching you, it is easy to forget how fragile these tropical habitats are—how impermanent they can be. With the laughter and camaraderie of a bird-banding session, it can be easy to forget funding problems, too. But as I release a newly banded Ovenbird, DeSante's voice echoes in my mind. "We haven't turned this around yet. We are going to have to be very smart about how we proceed."

This male Hooded Warbler (below) was netted in riparian habitat in southern Nicaragua.

Watching the bird fly away, I think to myself that one of the smartest things we could do would be to support MoSI and young researchers in every way we can.

Kristi Streiffert is a freelance writer who was based in Nicaragua for the past two years and now lives in Cyprus. She is a frequent contributor to this magazine.

How You Can Help

The Institute for Bird Populations offers an "Adopt a MoSI Station" program. When an individual or group sponsors a station with at least $300, the sponsor receives photographs and updates from that station. Contact Peter Pyle at IBP at pplyle@birdpop.org. You can mail a check made out to IBP to Peter Pyle, The Institute for Bird Populations, P.O. Box 1346, Point Reyes Station, California 94956-1346; web site: www.birdpop.org.

Convincing your local conservation area or organization to collaborate with this program would also be helpful. Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory, for example, made MoSI a priority and has contributed $1,000 per year to specific stations. Check out the program's web site at www.bpbo.ca. Contact the Institute for Bird Populations www.birdpop.org to coordinate funding.

Travel

Ecoquest, one of the few international tour companies offering natural history trips to Nicaragua (and the only one that has birding expertise) has been supporting the establishment of a MoSI site at a cooperative organic coffee plantation and ecolodge www.fincaesperanzaverde.org in central Nicaragua. The company offers yearly trips to the station, and travelers' fees and donations support the program. Visit their web site at www.ecoquesttravel.net

A view of the habitat around Finca Esperanza Verde, an organic coffee farm and ecolodge that is working to establish a new MoSI mist-netting operation

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Tim Gallagher, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-2443. email: twg3@cornell.edu