(click on image for more artwork by Robin Street-Morris)
A new reserve for one of my favorite birds is being set aside by the American Bird Conservancy and Colombian conservation group, Fundación ProAves. They announced "the creation of South America's first protected area for a songbird that breeds exclusively in North America. The reserve will protect wintering habitat for the Cerulean Warbler."
"'This Cerulean Warbler reserve is a groundbreaking step in the conservation of migratory song birds" said Mike Parr, Vice President for Communications at American Bird Conservancy. "This is the first South American preserve designed to protect a bird species that solely nests in the United States and Canada.'"
"The new reserve currently includes 500 acres of subtropical forest in the Rio Chucurà basin of Santander, Colombia. The area, one of the last natural remnant forest fragments in the region, shelters high populations of wintering Cerulean Warblers. The reserve also contains three Critically Endangered bird species: the Gorgeted Wood-Quail, Colombian Mountain Grackle, and Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird, along with many other threatened and endemic birds."
"'The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, currently up for reauthorization in Congress, provided critical funding that helped to show that this region is important to the long-term survival of the Cerulean Warbler," said Parr, "this project and others like it provide a strong justification for the renewal of the Act.'"
Link: Range map for the Cerulean Warbler
Link: All about the Cerulean Warbler from Cornell Labs
Link: More wonderful artwork by Robin Street-Morris
Cerulean Warbler drawing © Robin Street-Morris used with permission.
