The Sierra Madre Oriental extends from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. Like the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Mexico, this extensive mountain range supports vast pine-oak forests and other diverse habitats ranging from deserts to cloud forests. It is a primary destination for millions of wintering migrant forest birds from western North America.
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory in cooperation with the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) and Los Guías de Aves de El Cielo in January 2006 established six bird monitoring stations in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, located in the Sierra Madre Oriental in southern Tamaulipas. The project uses mist-netting protocols developed by IBP to monitor survival of wintering birds across wintering areas in the Neotropics (MoSI).
The goals of this project are to increase capacity for bird conservation in the reserve, increase awareness and engage local stakeholders in bird conservation, and provide scientific data to guide land management in the reserve. The program is now being run in cooperation with researchers from the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas in Ciudad Victoria, and has served as the basis for academic studies while continuing to train and employ local people from the reserve in bird monitoring.
For More Information:
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