threatened birds

by Gunnar Engblom June 24, 2010 7

Santos – the guy who found the Marvellous Spatuletail lek

Santos Montenegro – The spatuletail kid

In November 2003 Roger Ahlman came back to Lima after a Kolibri Expeditions trip ecstatic about having seen a lek of Marvelous Spatuletails. Several males dancing in mid-air with their tails over their heads. Santos Montenegro was the local kid (looked a kid but was already 23 at the time), who showed the lek to Roger and has been a protégé of Kolibri Expeditions since. Kolibri Expeditions raised the money so that Santos could purchase the area.

In April 2008 this display was filmed with high speed camera by the BBC for the Attenborough series Life and Santos was the person who guided the film crew to the lek on a property set of for the conservation of Marvelous Spatuletail.

A sour aftertaste is that the BBC did not make effort to make sure this unique site was conserved for the future and paid Santos less than 300 dollars for the unique footage. I made a futile intent to write David Attenborough but had CERO response.

Here is an interview I did in November last year with Santos. I hope by sending around this interview it shall be possible to raise the $5000 necessary to make a visitor center and a community sustainable development project at Santos reserve.

Santos Montenegro Interview

When did you start watching birds, Santos?

Santos: Year 2000

And why? Why did you start watching birds?

I was curious. I was working in my chacra (field) up the Rio Chido trail, where I bumped into a man who was looking for the Marvelous Spatuletail. It was Rob Dover who has a tourism operator agency in Chachapoyas and three people more who were looking for Marvelous Spatuletail. I walked up to them because I was curious and they showed me a painting of the bird from the Birds of Peru
book to be published by Clements and Shany. I told them that at my chacra there are loads of them. (laughs).

Was that true, or an innocent lie?

Yes, it was true. There were lots there.

They were surprised to hear this, as they had spent 5 days without seeing the bird, and consequently decided to try the next day. At 6 Am they showed up at my house and together we went to my Chacra.

The lekking males can be seen December to May. Marvelous Spatuletail. Photo: Alejandro Tello

And they saw it.

And they were very happy.

How much did they pay you that time?

They gave me 200 soles (around 70 dollars).

Wow, 200 soles. They must have been very happy?

They were extremely happy. I was also very happy. They were some photographers who wanted to take a photograph of this little bird. They must have been very happy to pay 200 soles. (One of the photographers was James Hecht who managed to get the first good photographs of the species.)

What were you thinking? That much money for just a bird?

Indeed. I was thinking: Can that bird be worth that much? It completely changed my way of looking at birds. From that moment on I started looking for birds. It changed me. I went into the fields specifically looking for birds and I really liked birdwatching.

Later birdwatchers started looking for me. Roger Ahlman was shown 3 males in 2003. The next year I went with you to Abra Patricia and Tarapoto. You persuaded your clients to donate a birdbook to me.

There was another guide Edilberto that I had used previously, but he was not to be found when Roger went nor when I met you for the first time. I understand there was some competition between you.

Edilberto later moved to Lima. From that time on after going with you to the other places I really got into birding. And of course even more now.

How many birders have you guided?

Santos: Some 300 in total. Most of them have visited our reserve.

And then BBC came. When was this?

April 2008 and they stayed 3 weeks. Filming not only at the reserve but also the ECOAN:s visitor center at Huembo. The best place for filming was at our reserve.

How many days did they film there?

Around a week.

How much did they pay you? Were you with them the whole time

800 Soles (US$282) for the 3 weeks – during which I was practically with them the whole time.

But you did also have your salary from ECOAN at the same time – so it was extra money.

I still had to check on the visitors center an hour or so per day.

The pay I suppose could have been better considering how much your first group paid you for just a mornings work, but considering not too bad. What bugs me is that BBC did not offer any donation to the reserve where the lek is. What are the urgent actions needed to make the reserve easier to visit and how to diminish envy among your neighbours?

Leading water from above the reserve to the villagers would be a fantastic convincing action that would make all my neighbours in favour of the reserve.

Would the neighbours be committed?

Yes! I asked the president of the community. If we could get money to buy all the piping from the visitors that visit the reserve, would the community be in favour and provide the labour? Por Dios! That would be fantastic, he said.

They also have to commit to conservation. It would be put as a condition. They put aside some already forest area to join the reserve and in turn get the much needed water for the pastures. We’d make a meeting and everyone signs a document of commitment. It would be no problem.

Could there also be a visitor center there in the reserve? What is your vision.

That would be fantastic. It is until now the best place to observe the Spatuletail – and especially the lek. This could be a place where the community sells some handicrafts. Later there could be sales of food and drinks, and souvenirs.

Let’s see what the results of this interview could bring. Hopefully BBC will see it and may in conscience make a donation. Also the tourists visiting will be an asset for the community as we can ask them to bring gifts such as school material, clothes for the kids, etc – like some groups we brought in the past.

Yes the people were very happy because of this.

Do you think the fact that there is already ECOAN:s visitor center would mean competition for them or for you?

No, they would compliment each other. People like to see the birds also at the lek between December-May. This time of year is also good for Pale-billed Antpitta which sings only in the wetter season.

What is the estimated cost to lay down the tubing and how many meters would be needed?

It’s around 1500m of PVC 2 inch tubing that is needed. Have to calculate the exact cost of the material needed. But more or less $3000 should do the trick.

And for a basic observation platform with roof and a sales area, to start with without toilets. How much?

With the community members doing the work around 6000 soles ($2120)

So overall just a little above 5000 dollars to make a fantastic project with your neighbours!

Yes.

Hire Santos as a guide!

I recommended Santos to ECOAN when they needed a person who could do bird surveys in the area. I also insisted he’d be contracted receiving the social benefits established by law. This has proven very important now that his wife is seriously ill and in public hospital in Chiclayo.

Santos is on a cross road in which he could start earning a much better salary as a birdguide. Unfortunately, we could not get a group together for June, but I just thought of another option for Santos. To start with he could join independent groups as a guide. He knows the birds between Pomacochas and Tarapoto very well after the trips he did with us. I hope some independent birders would take him along also all the way from Chiclayo so he gets experience along the full length of the road during June to mid-August 2010. Just cover his costs during the areas he does not yet know and pay him 35 dollars per day for the areas he knows. You can pride yourself of the making of a guide! I am sure Santos will become one of the great Peruvian bird guides very soon. Write me if you are interested at kolibriexp@gmail.com so I can coordinate with Santos. You pay to Santos directly!

Santos is learning English with lessons on an MP3 player – but he could use some practice with bilingual birders. He does know all the bird names in English of the birds between Pomacochas and Tarapoto – and most the calls. He is the only birder I know that IDs the spatuletail on flight calls.

Additional resources.

PBS High Speed camera film of Hummingbirds including Marvelous Spatuletail. Not available in South America due to license restriction. Try using a Proxy if you can’t see it.
BBC Life Attenborough Marvellous Spatuletail video in high speed. Unfortunately this great video can’t be inbedded.
Don Roberson’s species account of Marvelous Spatuletail with James Hecht’s original pics. Give you some of the background of the discovery of the species. I don’t agree with Parker’s assumption that the ratio is 5 fem/juv to 1 male. To me it seems they feed in partly in different areas and with different feeding strategy. The males often keep very low and retracts into the bushes which make the extraordinary difficult to see sometimes.

by Gunnar Engblom November 25, 2009 2

Slender-billed Curlew special on 10000 birds.

Slender-billed Curlew. Photo: Chris Gomersall

Slender-billed Curlew is undoubtedly one of the worlds rarest bird. I am enjoying immensly 10000 birds’s effort to spread information about the threatened birds around the world. After the splendid series about Spoon-billed Sandpiper now it is another shorebird under the microscope. Charlie Moores is giving us a review of Slender-billed Curlew and interviews.

So far the following deliveries have been published.

Search for Slender-billed Curlew part 1 . Introduction and summery.
Interview: Tim Cleeves on the Slender-billed Curlew. Tim Cleeves is database and fieldwork coordinator of the Slender-billed Curlew Working Group (SBCWG)

This reminds me of an idea I played with a few years ago. For critically threatened birds the birder observe he/she would get 5 points. If the bird later is downgraded to a lower threat category and consequently be worth less points, one would still be able to keep the 5 points earned. The accumulated effect over time with more birders taking on this system would be spending eco-dollars where the value would be the greatest.

On the other hand, if the situation becomes as dire as it is now for Slender-billed Curlew, the points would be completely lost if the species become extinct. A couple of very wealthy birders taking on this system could make the difference for some species. Nobody, would like to lose hard earned points, right?

I introduced this system in a database, and you may record your threatened birds on line and add up your point. I call it: Expedition Birding. The full rules can be found here.

The last three years, since the birth of my daughter, I have not had time to update the system with new scores as a BirdLife have revised some birds. However, during December the system will become up-to-date, and I have also secured some collaborators to help me manage the system. With my blog and social media such as Facebook, there is a better platform to involve more people.

Ultimate blockers – sorry mate, that does not count!

It is sad that some birders regard Critically Threatened birds as possible blockers. They carry the fact that they have seen Spix’s Macaw, Atitlan Grebe and Slender-billed Curlew with the highest pride, as it was some sort of achievement to have seen a bird that now nobody else can see. I would feel awful.
Not saying that there was much these birders could have done, but they probably could have done more than they did. And this is the mentality that needs to be promoted. We can do more than we do – for critically threatened birds!

Maybe, ABA and other listing promoting birder organizations should make new rules. Extinct birds should not count! When seeing a critically threatened bird, every birder should make everything in their might to get it down-graded to a lower threat category. Donations, voluntary work, promotion, petitions, etc.

by Gunnar Engblom October 22, 2009 1

Spoon-billed Sandpiper special on 10000 birds

Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Photo: Nial Moores. Curlew Sandpiper in the background.

I am very excited over the new series of posts on 10000 birds. Charley Moores is presenting the Critically threatened Spoonbilled Sandpiper over 6 blog posts, with discussion and inteviews with conservationists and specialists. Here is the first delivery.

The prognosis is indeed dire to say the least. Charlie writes:

Listed in 2001 in the Threatened Birds of Asia: The BirdLife International Red Data Book as Vulnerable with a population optimistically estimated at between 2,000 and 2,800 pairs, there are now thought to be less than 300 pairs left, and – to quote BirdLife International – “action is now urgently required to prevent the extinction of this species”.

I am sure there will also be some hints where the species presently can be seen and what we all can do to try to stop the extinctionof this splendid most wanted bird by many birders who love shorebirds.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Photo: Espen Lie Dahl

by Gunnar Engblom September 11, 2009 5

Fiji Petrel photographed

Fiji Petrel. The Tubenose project. Copyright: Hadoram Shirihai

This is fantastic news. The Fiji Petrel has been seen and photographed off Gau Island, in the Fiji archipelago. A press release a couple of hours ago from Birdlife International reveals many details, such as the species is known only from one specimen collected in1855. That is 154 years ago. Alright, the article admits that there been a few reports of birds landing on the roofs on houses on Gau island that possbly were this species. But without photos or specimens, it is hard to be sure.

The article also describes the very interesting chumming method used:

The main ingredients of chum? Fish offal cut into small pieces and mixed with very dense fish oil, to which water was added and then frozen in 10-kg blocks. The chum was prepared a few weeks ahead by volunteers from the BirdLife Affiliate in Fiji, NatureFiji-MareqetiViti, the official BirdLife Species Guardian for Fiji Petrel.

Frozen chum blocks persist for up to one-and-a-half hours, creating a pungent and constant oil slick, which attracts petrels from some miles away. On the second day, the first Fiji Petrel appeared, approaching the chum slick from downwind, slowly zigzagging over the slick, and suddenly changing direction to drop onto a small floating morsel.

Expedition for Fiji Petrel in 2008

Hadoram Shirihai, the expedition leader and main author of the forth-coming Tubenose guide and Tony Pym a veteran seabird expert and bird guide are no newbies in the area. Already last year 2008 I received an email on the Seabirds Newsgroup on June 27 reading the following.

THE FIJI PETREL EXPEDITION

Now only one place left!

The chance to maybe see Fiji Petrel; never reliably recorded at sea to date. We have the right boat, tons of chum aboard (literally), and good/honest/reliable seabird companions to share with!! We need just one more pair of good eyes.

We sail from Suva, Fiji on the 16 July, returning 26 July. There’ll be other stuff too, like Collared and Tahiti Petrels to look out for (and who knows what else!)

If you’re interested get in touch now with Hadoram Shirihai for more info…

Look forward to seeing you on board
Tony Pym

Tempting! Very tempting!

But the trip did not end well. In another email on August 8, 2008 to the Seabirds News group Tony Pym writes:

The Fiji Petrel Expedition 2008

Gau Island in Fiji Archipelago

This year’s mission to try and observe the Fiji Petrel at sea unfortunately had to be aborted after three days due to mechanical problems with the boat. Two chumming sessions on the journey to Gau, the island where birds have been grounded in the past, produced four Kermadec Petrels (only the second record for Fiji waters), a White-necked Petrel (though possibly a Vanuatu Petrel), 20+ Tahiti Petrels, four Collared Petrels and one probable, though brief, Providence Petrel. Of special note was a small ‘Cookilaria-sized’ dark petrel seen by three of the team, which flew under the Kermadec’s giving a direct size comparison.

On the second day at sea we chummed some 16 miles southeast of Gau. Two Polynesian Storm-petrels (the first confirmed in the Fiji and Samoa biogeographical region for 132 years) were observed plus two more Kermadecs. Tahiti Petrels numbered about 16 over a three-hour period and two Collared Petrels were distant. Once more, a small dark petrel was seen momentarily, only to fly into the sun’s glare.

Following the boat’s technical problems the group decided to fly to Taveuni in the Fiji Islands and try for seabirds there (and the endemic landbirds in any spare time). We could charter only a high-speed sports boat and chummed the first day 18 miles offshore and the second day at the Vuna seamount. The highlight was a White-bellied Storm-petrel (a species never reliably confirmed from Fiji waters) on the first day and three Gould’s Petrels on the second. Day totals were 50+ Tahiti Petrels, one Collared Petrel on the first day and 30+ Tahiti Petrels on the second – on our return to the quay at dusk we had a gathering of an additional 50+ Tahiti Petrels, waiting to return to their breeding burrows ashore.

So the expedition for Fiji Petrel had to be aborted after the second day due to engine malfunction. The members of the team must have felt very heart-broken, especially those that had chipped in at the very end. Nevertheless, some good birds were seen. The small all dark “Cookilaria” sized dark petrel could have been the Fiji Petrel which is remarkably small. I wonder what the team-members think of this bird in hind-sight.

Fiji Petrel. The Tubenose project. Photo: Hadoram Shirihai

2009 and a new expedition in 2010.

The present successful expedition was carried out in May 2009 and the results are being published in Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club (The first observations of Fiji Petrel Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi at sea: off Gau Island, Fiji, in May 2009 Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 129:129-148). Only 8 birds were seen in 11 days, which indicates that the species is extremely rare and deserves its Critically Threatened status. Since molt patterns and tentative age was observed, predictions can be made when to best search for the species at land. Finding the breeding areas is the most important step for its conservation. A new expedition to find the breeding area is planned in 2010.

Interview with Tony Pym and Hadoram Shirihai

I have had the pleasure of meeting with both Tony Pym and Hadoram Shirihai. Although, I can’t say I know them well, still well enough to feel comfortable to send off some questions. I hope to get answers by tomorrow to follow up on this teaser. Stay tuned!. Read the interview here.