JAN. 2006

Home Page- Conservation Update

Introduction

Bird Conservation Update

Wattled Curassow

Bolivian Swallow-tailed Cotinga

Priority Species needing attention

Titicaca Flightless Grebe

Bolivian Bird List

Contact Information

Biographical Information

***NOTE NEW BIRD BOLIVIA SITE GUIDE***

Introduction

Welcome to the Web page of A. Bennett Hennessey (e-mail). I am an ornithologist (bird biologist) and the director of the Bolivian Non-government organization (NGO) Armonía (BirdLife Bolivia; Armonía e-mail; Armonia objectives and background).

I have always been in awe of our planet’s biological diversity and complex ecology (looking at birds with scientific scrutiny) and my inner being cannot accept the loss of this evolutionary brilliance through our inharmonious actions. The fact that most humans place more value on a piece of art than a living species of animal or plant is shear evidence of our undeveloped state and must be corrected- before it is too late.

I created this web page for three reasons:

To globally inform and promote bird conservation work in Bolivia

To share information about Bolivian birds

To assist Birdwatching in Bolivia

Some survey work and tour guiding I do personally as a contractor but the majority of my conservation work is through Armonía. So the conservation aspects of this web page serve to show what I am doing and only part of what Armonía is doing in bird conservation in Bolivia. Have a look at Armonia Bird conservation programs update for an almost complete list of what we are up to. I would like you to consider supporting Asociacion Armonia’s Bird Conservation efforts with a donation written to Asociacion Civil Armonia, 48 Douglas drive, Norwalk, CT, 06850 (or Membership US$ 25). Asociacion Armonía is now able to receive US tax deductible donations by individuals of 500 US$ or more. A cheque needs to written to American Friends of BirdLife International Inc. with a note stating that you are sending a cheque for _,___,___ US$ to American Friends of BirdLife International Inc, for Asociacion Armonia's Bolivian Bird conservation efforts. Could you also email this note to abhennesey@armonia-bo.org. A tax receipt will be sent to your return address. The cheque must be sent to: American Friends of BirdLife International Inc., c/o Chapel & York, PMB 293, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,

Suite 900, South Building, Washington, DC 20004, USA.

Also contact Bird Bolivia for birdwatching information (birdbolivia@unete.com.bo ). For many of these species the clock is ticking. We try to make a little support go a long way.

Bird Conservation Programs Update

As many of you know, Bolivia has a new president: Evo Morales. Evo is Bolivia’s first indigenous president, which promises many changes in a government that has historically been dominated by Spanish descendents in a majority indigenous country. Sometimes change is good, and in a situation where Bolivia has had four presidents in the last five years, a radical change might be just what we need. What we need, as conservationists, is some social peace, so that the tourism element of our programs can help sustain our actions. At this moment, I do not know what Evo will do as far as the environment is concerned, but I am, we are hoping for the best. At least 2006 should be free of road blocks and present itself as a good year for tourism.

Many of Armonía’s bird conservation programs- now most working with local communities- have found a demand and or a possibility to assist a component of the program with tourism. Nothing too complicated, but a way to help in the creation of a simple tourism infrastructure near an excellent observation area, and design the visit in such a way that the local community can receive support for their conservation efforts. This is the premise of ecotourism, but it frequently becomes just another commodity to sell- where the big money goes to a clever businessman in the city.

Armonía is developing this simple tourism infrastructure presently for the Wattled Curassow and the Red-fronted Macaw. We can see communities that could really use this help with the Southern Horned-Curassow, Cochabamba Mountain-Finch, Bolivian Spinetail and the Blue-throated Macaw, and we will be seeking ways to develop this in the future. Now if Bolivia can do its part in making the country attractive for visitors- we will be all set.

Wattled Curassow (Crax globulosa)

Since the rediscovery of the Wattled Curassow in 1999, this Armonia project has been gaining ground for the conservation of this species. You can read the history of this project in an article published in World Birdwatch (2002, Vol. 25, no. 2, 30-31) or the initial full copy here at Bird Bolivia Research Projects (go to article). You can also read the Armonia update for July 2005, and a more informal story of our quest to find this lost beast (see story).

In 2004, the Wattled Curassow program received continued support by Alan Weeden, Site Support Group Program support from the Dutch Government, and a Rufford Grant. Hugo Aranibar the Wattled Curassow conservation program coordinator has been working through July and August with a group of students from Glasgow University, evaluating the Wattled Curassow population and its habitat. We have begun training and construction of a tourism lodge.

The politics of protection is more complicated and we are reviewing several methods to protect the land around the last population. We are working directly with the local communities to help them with their land rights, and in turn help the protection of the Wattled Curassow.

The big picture, is that in a few years, tourism will be able to sustain the protection of the area, by offering work to the Site Support Group, and by covering the salaries of the park guards. We know that tourism is always slated as the win-win to protect nature, but this last population of the Wattled Curassows in Bolivia is accessible to the bounding ecotourism market in Rurrenabaque- so it is very feasible. We also plan to invest some of the tourism income into an endowment fund- with the idea being in 20 years there would be enough invested income that the interests could cover the park guard salaries.

Palkachupa: The Bolivian Swallow-tailed Cotinga (Phibalura boliviana)

What was declared a subspecies in 1930 based on two specimens, one of questionable sex, has become a series of discoveries illuminating Palkachupa: Bolivian Swallow-tailed Cotinga as a distinctive species. You can read the initial article (see article) published in Cotinga #17. 54-55, and read our latest information published in Cotinga #21 as a PDF (www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/articles/21/Bromfield.pdf).

The Armonia update has more information on the program. In the next few months we will attempt to survey the rest of the habitat, hopefully arriving at a population estimate. This work will include the first step of environmental education. From this work, and an evaluation of the threats to the species, we will sit down and work out a Working Species Recovery Plan for the species. Donations of US$ 1000 and more would be greatly appreciated for this species.

Priority Species needing attention

Given the poor availability of conservation support, we at Armonia must constantly prioritize our conservation efforts to gain the biggest bang for the buck with the neediest species. We are covering most of the main problems, but two species appear to deserve special attention. One is the Cochabamba Mountain-Finch (see Armonia update) where we need funds to get in the field and evaluate what is going on with the species, and what we need to do. The other is the odd Unicolored Blackbird (Turdus haplochrous). This species is worrisome, as we know of no site in Bolivia where you can see the bird. Our research studies through-out the Beni for the Blue-throated Macaw are not finding the thrush anywhere. And think of this, it is a Turdus, like the American Robin. The Turdus are great singers, but yet no known recording of the Unicolored Blackbird exists. That is odd and makes us think some urgent research is required. Let us know if you would like to support this effort.

Titicaca Flightless Grebe (Rollandia microptera)

Probably the biggest surprise from our Titicaca Flightless Grebe research in the last year has been the number of discarded drowned birds we have found near fishing ports along the Peruvian and Bolivian coast of Lake Titicaca ( photo of this drowned bird and its chick by Daniel Jebbin, Chicuito, Peru). Claudia Flores conducted a threat evaluation study in June/July coming to the conclusion that the death of the birds in fishing nets would appear to be the biggest threat to the species survival. Her report is available in Spanish for anyone interested. The fishermen say that the birds only started drowning in nets one the traditional thread nets were changed to the new nylon nets. Each year, as the fishing catch decreases per net, there are more nets placed out in the lake.

When you run the numbers, there are some scary results of how many birds could be dieing in the fishing nets each year. Thankfully we have some science to rest on. In 2003 Ari Martinez conducted a systematic survey of Flightless Grebes for Lake Titicaca. His study will be published in Bird Conservation International this 2006. We are have reproduced this study in Nov. 2005, and though the official numbers are not in yet- it appears the population has undergone a 20% decline. With the results from this research, we should have a clear idea of the level of threat the fishing nets hold on the Flightless Grebe and how this is affecting its rate of decline. Our next conservation measures are going to need financial support, so please contact us if you can help or know someone or an institution that might be able to help.

The Annotated Bolivian Bird List published by Armonía

Seven years later, Sebastian Herzog and Francisco Sagot and I have published the fifth edition of the Bolivian Bird List with data on all 1398 of Bolivia’s bird species. The list has been completely updated to 2002, including information (in English and Spanish) for each species: Scientific name, English name, Indigenous names, Subspecies names, Detectability, Synonyms, Life zones, Departments, Altitudinal range in Bolivia, Habitats (taken from Neotropical Birds- Stotz, Fitzpatrick, Parker, and Moskovits) Protected Areas, Movements, Threatened Status and Endemism. The List will be available shortly through major nature book catalogues, or can be purchased through Armonía for 20 $US (E-mail Armonía). It was review by Van Remsen in the fall 2004 Cotinga.

Contact Information

A. Bennett Hennessey

Executive Director

Armonia/ BirdLife International

E-mail address

abhennessey@armonia-bo.org

Mail address

Casilla 3566

Santa Cruz

Bolivia

Web address

www.birdbolivia.com

Office phone

Home office 591-3-356-3636

Armonía office 591-3-356-8808

Biographical Information

A. Bennett Hennessey was born in Quebec City, Canada. After finishing his zoology and environmental sciences studies at the University of Toronto, he worked on conservation projects in the Republic of the Congo for a year, with his most memorable experience being the 10 weeks that he stayed in a remote forest Mbendjelle Pygmy village recording bird song. In 1995 Bennett moved to Bolivia to continue his Bird research and conservation activities. He has guided over 15 Bolivian birdwatching trips and been involved in over 25 ornithological expeditions within all the main habitat types in Bolivia: Rainforest, Yungas forest, Grasslands and Dry forest and has completed species specific research of such threatened species as Wattled and Southern-horned Curassow, Blue-throated Macaw, Red-fronted Macaw, Military Macaw, Bolivian Recurvebill, Yungas Antwren, Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant, Bolivian and Brazilian Swallow-tailed Cotingas and Scimitar-winged Piha. He has 290 bird sound recordings on Birds of Bolivia 2 CD-ROM by Sjoerd Mayer and has archived over 1300 recordings at Cornell Bird Lab’s Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds. Bennett authored the Annotated List of the Birds of Bolivian with S. Herzog and F. Sagot. He is the director of BirdLife’s Saving Americas Rare Birds program, which supports on-ground conservation actions and trains new conservationists in the Americas. Bennett became the executive director of the Bolivian Bird Conservation NGO Armonía/ BirdLife International in 2002 which has grown in three years from 2 conservation projects and 3 employees to 15 Bolivian bird conservation programs with 25 Bolivian employees.

Bennett works hard at finding an equal and manageable line between creating, promoting, publishing and supervising productive cost-efficient bird conservation programs, keeping Armonía on track, being a good father and husband, enjoying nature in work and play, and finding time to smell the roses. Other interests include bird sound recording, mammals, forest habitat dynamics, indigenous cultures, writing, music, film, literature, cooking, travel, museums, home construction, NBA, and all those little wonderful things life has to offer. Bennett lives with his two children and wife in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.