6. Yellow-billed Cotingas

In 2010 I began a collaboration with Karen Leavelle of Osa Conservation, George V. N. Powell at WWF and others to study the rare Yellow-billed Cotinga (Carpodectes antoniae) in Southwestern Costa Rica. This species is one of the rarest birds in the world, with only 250-1000 individuals remaining in the wild. Practically nothing is known about these animals, probably because they spend most of their time in the very tops of trees eating fruit - so they are difficult to spot and nearly impossible to catch. Karen and her crew spent many months following these birds to find out their local movements among the fruiting trees - we then installed canopy nets to capture them. Karen was lucky enough to capture and radio-tag three individuals - the story was covered by Discovery News.

With three individuals radio-tagged, we can understand their seasonal migrations, determine which habitats are important for their life cycle, and thus allocate conservation efforts accordingly. Already, Karen's crew has determined that the species needs forest rich in fruiting trees located adjacent to mangroves. Our preliminary home range analysis shows that the species uses about 40 ha of forest adjacent to mangroves (see home range map below). The transmitters will allow Karen's team to track the species' migration and to determine if habitat protection is needed during the non-breeding phase of the species' life cycle.

Some of our work was highlighted in this recent scientific article: Neotropical Birds Online: Yellow-billed Cotinga.

We've also published some interesting natural history on the species in this article in Ornitologia Neotropical.

A paper describing our radio-tracking project has been accepted by the Wilson Journal of Ornithology and will be published soon.