Project: Long-term monitoring of bird communities in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Part III: Monitoring in the Sacranix mountain.

Project description:

Study site and base of the monitoring:

• Altitude 1,800 to 400 m above sea level.
• At least 130 km² primary broadleaf forest, from cloud forest to lowland rainforest.
• Small Maya Q‘eqchi’ villages distributed in the area. (See land use map)
• First study of the avifauna 2001-2002 (Eisermann 2001).
• Training of bird census takers during a course of 6 month in 2003.
• Monthly point counts in cloud forest.

Census taker training:

Three persons from the community of Sanimtaca were trained as bird census takers from May to October 2003. For the methodology see Part I: Introduction and Methods. The 3 first months of this training were accompanied by one of the census takers from the community of Rocjá Pomtilá, who were trained in 2001. This helped significantly in the transmission of the monitoring concept, since explanations were also given in Q’eqchi’, their native language.

In order to evaluate the training we conducted simultaneous point counts. The trained census takers counted together as the trainer was counting simultaniously. Table 1 shows a summary of the number of detected species during these counts. From a total of 52 species, 45 species were detected by both, the census takers and the trainer.

Table 2 shows density data calculated with software Distance 3.5 (Thomas et al. 1998) for the most abundant species with at least 80 records during the simultaneous counts. This number is recommended for reliable calculation with Distance 3.5. (Buckland et al. 1993). Density estimates are very similar between the monitoring team and the trainer.

Results:

• Number of detected species in Sacranix: 320
• Number of Nearctic-Neotropical migrants: 53
• Number of summer residents (wintering in the South): 6
• 8 globally threatened species
• See table 3 for population density data of the most abundant species for the Sacranix cloud forest.
• Monthly point counts at 520-650 and at 1,200-1,700 m elevation revealed altitudinal migration of Slate-colored Solitair (Myadestes unicolor) and Common Bush-Tanager (Chlorospingus ophthalmicus) (Eisermann 2005)
• Noteworthy observation of migration dates of Nearctic-Neotropical migrants and others are contributed to quarterly report on bird records in Central America (Jones, since 2004).

Habitat data:
A forest cover map was elaborated for the Sacranix mountain based on a Landsat ETM image.

An inventory of plant diversity is currently carried out as part of the bird habitat assessment. Dr. Harald Förther (Germany) has collected plant specimens in the area since 1998.

Coordinator: Knut Eisermann (Engineer for nature conservation and landscape use),

References

Eisermann, K. (2001): Investigación de la avifauna de las regiones: planicie del río Ik’bolay, Sierra Guaxac, Sierra Sacranix. Reporte, Proyecto Eco-Quetzal, Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Eisermann, K. (2005): Noteworthy bird observations in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 125: 3-11.

Buckland, S.T., D.R. Anderson, K. P. Burnham, & J. L. Laake (1993): Distance Sampling: Estimating abundance of biological populations. Chapman & Hall, London.

Jones, H. L. (since 2004): Central America. North American Birds. Since Vol. 58.

Thomas, L., J. L. Laake, J. F. Derry, S. T. Buckland, D. L. Borchers, D. R. Anderson, K. P. Burnham, S. Strindberg, S. L. Hedley, M. L. Burt, F. F. C. Marques, J. H. Pollard & R. M. Fewster (1998): Distance 3.5. Release 6. Research Unit for Wildlife Population Assessment, University of St. Andrews, UK.