Flight Log is a cooperative publication of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, National Audubon Society-California, and the California Department of Fish & Game to support and promote the Partners in Flight Initiative in California.
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Mini Nagendran, CPIF Co-Chair
Daniel Evans, CPIF C0-Chair
|BirdLife International (formerly ICBP) started the Important Bird Area
(IBA) concept in the 1980s and it has grown steadily ever since. Recognizing
that approximately two-thirds of all bird populations in the world are
declining, the IBA program is attempting to systematically identify and
protect areas that are critical for birds. Its efforts are an integral
part of the Partners In Flight program's goals to protect declining bird
populations, particularly migratory species, before they become threatened
or endangered. The IBA program designates sites that range from small areas
encompassing a single endangered species to extensive migration stopovers,
flyways, or other areas that support a large concentration of one or more
species. In conserving key sites worldwide, either as officially protected
areas or through the promotion of sustainable land use practices, the IBA
program's overall goal is to conserve a significant proportion of our avifauna.
Given that birds are good indicators of overall biological diversity, protecting
most IBAs will also help other forms of plant and animal life.
Loggerhead Shrike by Sophie Webb
|Since the IBA program has just been initiated in the United States, statewide criteria still need to be established. National sites will be defined based on the following categories:|
An IBA contains vulnerable, threatened or endangered species, endemic species, species representative of a biome, or concentrations of seabirds, waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, waders, or migratory landbirds.
|Each category has a number of criteria, any one of which can be met
to qualify the site as an IBA. The evaluation criteria for national categories
were established by a scientific committee under the auspices of the American
Ornithologists' Union. Sites of continental and global scale, which are
being compiled by BirdLife International, follow similar categories, but
on a larger scale. BirdLife International has already successfully initiated
the IBA program in Europe, Latin America, and Africa.
Simply put, an IBA is a site that provides essential habitat for one or more species of breeding or non-breeding birds. These sites contain vulnerable, threatened or endangered species, endemic species, species representative of a biome, or concentrations of seabirds, waterfowl, raptors, shorebirds, waders, or migratory landbirds. There is no specific size criteria for an IBA. But, they can be identified on different scales of importance as a global, continental, national or state site, depending on the characteristics and species associated with the site.
|IBAs must be different in ornithological importance from their surrounding
areas. They should be protected or have a very good potential for being
protected. IBAs should themselves, or in conjunction with other sites,
provide all the requirements for birds that use the sites during the time
they are present. Boundaries may be natural (rivers, watersheds) or man
made (roads, property boundaries). If large, contiguous habitats exist
that are important for birds, it may not be possible to identify sites
within these areas which are different from the surrounding areas. Such
large areas should still be conserved even if they cannot be designated
as an IBA.
In the United States, as BirdLife International's partner, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) identifies globally, continentally, and nationally important IBAs. National Audubon Society will identify IBAs in the United States. The National Audubon Societies of New York and Pennsylvania have already developed their statewide IBAs program, and the 2 states each have 10 designated IBAs.
Here in California we propose to establish a PIF IBA committee, open to anyone interested in assisting the effort to identify, classify, and protect IBAs throughout the state. The IBA program is an integral part of the national Partners in Flight (PIF) Conservation Strategy. As such, the identification and conservation of IBAs will be run in cooperation with PIF working groups.
IBA sites can be nominated by any individual, group or organization simply by providing the necessary information. Following nomination and review, once the IBA has been designated, it is compiled into a national or statewide publication. Upon publication of the IBA register, NGOs and other partners are encouraged to "adopt" IBAs to help monitor and conserve the sites.
Within California a few IBAs of national and international importance have already been designated (e.g., Kern River Preserve). National Audubon Society-California, in partnership with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) and other interested groups or individuals, will develop the California IBAs program. California ranks as one of the highest in habitat diversity as well as in the number of listed species within the United States. Developing the statewide IBA program for California will create an ideal format to enhance conservation efforts under the CPIF program.
For additional information on the Important Bird Area program, criteria for site selection, and site nomination forms, please contact Mini Nagendran at National Audubon Society in Sacramento. (TEL: 916-481-5332).
Progress in the IBA Program in Mexico
The IBA Program in Canada
The Panama Audubon Society, in association with BirdLife international, is developing a 3-year program of Important Bird Areas (IBA or AIA in Spanish) in Panama. The funding for the first 28 months of the program has been provided through an environmental grant from the Fundacion Natura-Panama. The program uses birds as the primary research focus because of their effectiveness as indicators to identify areas of importance for the conservation of biodiversity.
The concept behind the IBA program has well-proven precedents in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where it has provided an effective means of establishing the basis for national conservation programs. BirdLife International is now applying those experiences to a new more ambitious initiative, the Important Bird Areas Program for the Americas, and the Panama component will be an important part of this regional program.
The Panama IBA program has a Scientific Coordinator (George Angehr), an Executive Director (Luis Quinzada), a Database Coordinator (Karla Aparicio), and three research assistants.
The first stage of the Panama IBA program was the celebration of the 1st National Workshop on February 12-13 of this year, which involved local experts from several governmental and non-governmental Panamanian organizations. International guests included Dr. Robert Ridgely (author of The Birds of Panama) and David Wege from BirdLife International. Over 70 IBAs came out of this meeting, which include various habitat types from the rainforests of Bocas del Toro to the Matsugarati wetlands in Darien.
Several surveys have been conducted to date in areas that lack avifaunal information, such as the Maje mountain range (Panama province), Cerro Hoya National Park (Veraguas province), and the Chorogo (Chiriqui province), among others.
For further information please contact: Sociedad Audubon de Panama, Apartado 2026, Panama, Panama. Tel/Fax: (507) 224-4740, (507) 224-4392.
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Marti J. Kie, Coordinator
|For those of you who may be new to the Flight Log, or may not remember the
1995 Fall issue, let me reintroduce the Riparian
Habitat Joint Venture (RHJV). In order to help sustain and enhance
the integrity and biological diversity of riparian systems, and to strengthen
existing collaborative efforts, California Partners in Flight launched
the RHJV in September 1994 with a public signing of the RHJV's Working
Agreement. The RHJV couples Federal and State resource management agencies
with private conservation organizations and individuals with the common
goal to protect, enhance and restore riparian habitats for California's
resident and migratory landbirds.
Warbling Vireo by an Ian Tait
|In 1994 the following organizations made up the membership of the implementation
board: California Department of Fish and Game, California Resources Agency,
Wildlife Conservation Board, Ducks Unlimited, National Audubon Society,
Kern River Research Center, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, Bureau of Land
Management, Bureau of Reclamation, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife
Service, State Lands Commission and National Park Service. We have since
added the following organizations: The Nature Conservancy, USGS Biological
Resource Division (formerly National Biological Service), and Natural Resources
Conservation Service. The RHJV welcomes the support of these organizations
and will continue to increase our effectiveness through the addition of
other new partners.
We are also continuing to recognize excellence in riparian conservation through our Flagship Project Program. In May, 1996 a ceremony honoring the partners of the Cosumnes River Project took place on the Valencin Unit of the Cosumnes River Preserve. Six partners received Certificates of Achievement from the RHJV. In September another Flagship Project ceremony took place on the Santa Margarita River in Fallbrook where thirteen partners received Certificates of Achievement. Both ceremonies received outstanding local media coverage and were well attended by members of the community, the RHJV Implementation Board and the recipient organizations. We are hoping to honor our last 1996 Flagship Project, the San Joaquin River Grasslands Ecological Reserve, this spring.
One of the difficulties faced by the RHJV Technical Committee while attempting to develop an Implementation Plan, was the lack of both historical and existing data. This made setting specific, quantifiable habitat and population objectives for California's resident and migratory landbirds an impossible task. The response to our request for Flagship Project proposals indicated that there is currently a lot of interest and work being done in the field of riparian conservation. In order to become more active in those efforts, the RHJV is forming regional Working Committees. The boundaries of the regions are based on California's Biodiversity Council's ten Bioregions: Klamath/North Coast, Modoc, Sacramento Valley, Bay Area/Delta, Sierra, Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley, Mojave, South Coast and Colorado Desert. Through data exchange between the Working Committees and the Technical Committee, the RHJV will have an executable Implementation Plan with quantifiable habitat and population goals by June 1998.
Though the Plan will give us a "road map" for where protection, enhancement and restoration of riparian habitats should be concentrated, we don't plan to just sit idle until the Plan is written. We are continuing our support of all riparian projects, and through the Working Committees, we hope to be representing California's resident and migratory landbirds on all watershed and regional planning efforts.
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Kern River Research Center
|1996 started off slowly for the Willow Flycatchers on the South Fork
Kern River. The first males arrived around May 13, which is typical for
this area. However, the next wave of males and the females arrived late.
As a result, the first nests were not started until the second and third
week in June.
Unfortunately, not as many Willow Flycatchers came back to the study area this year. We estimate that there were 28 to 30 male and 28 to 33 female flycatchers in the study area, which is roughly equivalent to 29 pairs of Willow Flycatchers . For the past three years (1993 to 1995), we estimated that there were 34 pairs in the study area. This decrease in Willow Flycatcher numbers was unexpected because we had reduced Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism of this species for the past three years through our cowbird trapping program.
KRRC reports that Willow Flycatchers on the South Fork Kern River had the lowest parasitism rates by Cowbirds, their best nest success, and highest numbers of fledglings produced since trapping of Brown-headed Cowbirds began in 1993.
|We started the cowbird trapping program in 1993, and have reduced the
parasitism rate from an average of 63.5% (4 years prior to cowbird trapping)
to only 15.6% in the trap area. Flycatcher nest success in the trap area
increased from 26% (prior to trapping) to 48% (after trapping) and the
number of young fledged per year has increased from an average of 24 per
year prior to cowbird trapping to 38 per year (from 1993 to 1995).
This year we continued the cowbird trapping program and the Willow Flycatchers had outstanding reproductive success. We recorded the fewest number of parasitized nests (3 out of 28, 10.7%), and the highest recorded nest success of 69% (Mayfield nest success: 61.4%) and number of fledglings produced (58). Hopefully the increased reproductive success will lead to an increase in Willow Flycatcher numbers next year.
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C. John Ralph, Chair
|As one of the technical working groups of Partners in Flight, the primary
role of the Monitoring Working Group has been to help partners establish
monitoring and inventory programs. These programs provide the foundation
for management and conservation of landbirds, both migrants and residents,
in all the temperate and tropical areas of the Americas. To date, the Group
has produced several documents in English as well as Spanish, and also
conducted workshops to provide biologists and managers with the tools to
design and operate inventory and monitoring programs.
In a series of meetings over the past few years, many goals have been established and met by the members. At the moment, the following are the goals that have been suggested for new projects for the Group, either at the Cape May workshop last year, from International Working Group meetings, or by input from individual members.
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Daniel Evans, CPIF Co-Chair
Executive Director, PRBO
|Imagine being able to help conserve migratory songbirds every day,
especially on those early mornings as you head out to the field with a
strong cup of coffee in hand. Several recent studies, led by biologists
at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the University of Michigan,
have clearly documented the dependence of many migratory birds on forests
associated with the production of coffee. Their important discovery has
come none too soon. This traditional method of coffee cultivation under
shade trees is rapidly being supplanted by modern intensive techniques
that require complete clear cutting of the forest, as well as application
of chemical fertilizer and pesticides.
Plantations of shade coffee can support "more than 40 different trees with all their diverse epiphytes, mosses, parasites, and lichens, which themselves support insects, amphibians, and other animals."* The bird diversity of these forested plantations approaches that of undisturbed tropical forests. From my own experience in the Dominican Republic, shaded cacao plantations also support greater biodiversity and bird populations that newer high-yield varieties that require clear cutting.
As one article put it "Humans aren't the only creatures that rely on coffee to get through the day."* Now we can actually use our consumer advocacy and hard currency to encourage a more sustainable use of tropical forests. Next time you order that double latté, ask if the coffee is shade grown, or better yet, insist on organic coffee, which is grown without pesticides as well.
If enough consumers speak up, we can make a difference - Americans drink about 33% of the world's coffee. Let your favorite company know your support for the protection of tropical forests. You can start with Starbucks Coffee Co., 2203 Airport Way South, Seattle, WA 98134
If enough consumers speak up, we can make a difference - Americans drink about 33% of the world's coffee. Let your favorite company know your support for the protection of tropical forests.
In many areas, traditional coffee plantations are the only remaining forest left in the landscape and are the sole refuge of forest-dependent organisms.
|The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center organized and hosted the First
Sustainable Coffee Congress on September 16-18, 1996. Over 200 participants
came from ten countries in the support of a bird-friendly, environmentally-friendly,
socially-just and economically-viable direction for the coffee industry.
The participants represented a wide range of interests including: economists,
sociologists, biologists, historians, coffee roasters, farmers, brokers,
fair trade authorities, members of the Specialty Coffee Association, as
well as leaders of various Latin American industrial and governmental organizations.
The congress featured panelist presentations and discussions on the following topics: Coffee's History in Latin America; Biodiversity and Coffee Production; The Grower's Perspective on Sustainable Coffee; Marketing Sustainable Coffee; Lessons Learned from Other Niches; Organic and Fair Trade Coffees; and Encouraging Sustainable Coffee: Technologies, Economics and Policies. Working groups met throughout the three-day event. These groups discussed topics such as certification processes, marketing, and education. Proceedings from the congress will be published in January.
So what does coffee have to do with birds? The short answer is that traditional-grown coffee is farmed in plantations that retain the rain and cloud forests to provide shade for the coffee shrubs. These plantations have such high numbers of bird species and high densities of birds that they rival the importance of pristine forest reserves and National Parks in Latin America. In fact, for the overall conservation picture, these plantations often exceed the importance of parks because they cover a much larger percentage of the land. In many areas, traditional coffee plantations are the only remaining forest left in the landscape and are the sole refuge of forest-dependent organisms.
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|Until recently, it was thought that the Tree Swallow had been extirpated
as a breeding species in Southern California, as a result of the viable
secondary nesting cavities having been virtually wiped out by development
and agriculture. In January 1991, I saw many Tree Swallows stopping over
during migration at United Water Conservation's spreading grounds, in Saticoy.
In the early 1980's, Jesse Graham built nest boxes for Tree Swallows at
the Ventura Sewage Ponds, and monitored breeding swallows there. After
seeing the success at Ventura, I requested permission to put up some boxes
on the UWD land to see if the birds would use them.
With UWD's approval, I was able to put up three boxes. The swallows used one of the three and produced one successful clutch. Since that time, I have added two additional sites, one on another of UWD's properties and the other on a private ranch in Santa Paula, bringing the total number of nest boxes to 150. All locations are along the Santa Clara River. The program has been very successful so far and the numbers of breeding Tree Swallows have increased dramatically.
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|A new program called ARMS (Avian Reserach and Monitoring Support) being
sponsored by the Biological Resources Division of the USGS (formerly the
NBS) and Partners-in-Flight will be providing important support to avian
conservation projects. The primary mission is to provide assistance on
study design and implementation to Interior agencies and other groups as
well as short term technical assistance to local managers and other decision-makers.
ARMS is emphasizing the use of standardized methods as well as sound design
analysis. The project will maintain information, including a World Wide
Web home page, on individuals and groups able to provide expert assistance
on all aspects of avian conservation projects. ARMS will provide assistance
on: study design, recruiting, training, and supervising field assistants,
data management, statistical analysis, GIS methods, coordination on regional
projects, prepartion of guidelines, new methods, and software and short
courses. Anyone needing assistance may consult the ARMS website or call
the ARMS co-investigators who will provide referrals, direct assistance,
or both. Regularly breakout meetings of ARMS will be occuring at all PIF
Western Working Group meetings with the first meeting slated for the January
29th meeting in Portland (see announcements).
Institutional support will be provided by the Biological Resources Division (for referrals and assistance in design, data management, GIS methods, and statistical analysis), the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (referrals and assistance in training and data collections), and Partners in Flight (sponsorship of ARMS meetings and activities; assistance in identifying ARMS projects; dissemination of ARMS products).
ARMS Will Assist in:
Recruiting and Training
Data Management and Statistical Analysis
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By David Tinker
Corning Union High School, California
|Chico's Altacal Audubon Society is 3 1/2 years into its Educational Partnership with Corning Union High School (CUHS). CUHS Physical Science, Biology, Ecology, and Advanced Art classes use the chapter's 23 acre Arneburg Sanctuary as a field trip site. In addition to providing this physical site, the Altacal chapter provides chaperons for the ninth grade science classes. As trained by PRBO staff, the ninth grade science classes perform Population Censusing (Area Searches) on the adjoining Nature Conservancy Restoration site. Participating with the California Waterfowl Association's Wood Duck Program and the North American Bluebird Society's Bluebird Program, the CUHS Science Club maintains nest boxes in the sanctuary as part of its long-term monitoring project. The CUHS Science Club also participates with the Altacal chapter by presenting its Watershed Program at environmental fairs and goes on the Christmas Bird Counts. A letter of support highlighting this Education Partnership was used in the high school's Environmental Science grant in which it received $10,000 from the TOYOTA TAPESTRY program. This partnership benefits everybody and continues to evolve and grow.|
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|Mini Nagendran has recently joined California's National Audubon Society
as their Director of Bird Conservation. And among her many duties, she
has agreed to join me as Co-Chair for the California Partners In Flight
Mini has a strong ornithological background. For her Ph.D., she studied crane rearing, behavior, and migration. Ask Mini about putting radio transmitters that can be read via satellite on cranes! She recently convened a satellite telemetry workshop at the BirdlLife Asia Conference and the Pan-Asia Ornithological Congress, which was held in India. Mini continues her passion for and research on cranes through her work with other organizations as well.
Along with helping to promote and coordinate Partners In Flight efforts, Mini represents Audubon on the Riparian Habitat Joint Venture's technical committee. She also is working to develop the statewide Important Bird Areas program and to support efforts of local Audubon chapters throughout the state.
I look forward to working with Mini to keep our momentum going on Partners In Flight, as well as developing other projects with her. She brings new energies and ideas to PIF. And we are glad to have you Mini.
|The California office of the National Audubon Society, under the leadership of Dan Taylor and Mini Nagendran, has agreed to co-publish the California PIF newsletter, the Flight Log. National Audubon's participation will assure that local activities are well represented in our newsletter. Statewide Audubon chapters represent a major force for the success of our efforts to protect and restore California's diverse bird populations. By getting our message about Partners In Flight activities out to all the chapters, National Audubon is helping to get a large and very important sector more involved. We can look forward to regular reports on Audubon's activities and meetings.|
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|Flight Log 4, Winter 1996. Edited by Grant Ballard, Mike Lynes, Geoff Geupel, Mini Nagendran, and Dan Evans. Designed by Mike Lynes and Grant Ballard. Web design by Mike Lynes.|
Point Reyes Bird Observatory