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Periodic Migration and Lowland Forest Refugia in a “Sedentary” Neotropical Bird, Wetmore’s Bush‐Tanager
Author(s) -
Winker Kevin,
Escalante Patricia,
Rappole John H.,
Ramos Mario A.,
Oehlenschlager Richard J.,
Warner Dwain W.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1997.95450.x
Subject(s) - geography , ecology , habitat , refugium (fishkeeping) , tropical forest , population , biology , demography , sociology
Although the concept of tropical birds as sedentary is pervasive, evidence suggests many are not. Our grasp of movement status in tropical birds is decidedly poor, but the successful long‐term conservation of these birds depends on such information. Sedentariness will likely doom much tropical avian diversity, but increased vagility is a two‐edged sword: beneficial in promoting immigration, but detrimental in that more than one habitat may be required. Birds requiring more than one habitat may be unable to locate a particular type as landscape modifications increase. Our long‐term data set from the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas in southern Veracruz, México, reveals infrequent, large‐scale movements in a local highland endemic. Wetmore’s Bush‐Tanager ( Chlorospingus ophthalmicus wetmorei) seems occasionally dependent upon lowland forests (now greatly diminished) as a refugium from temporarily unsuitable highlands. Our data and observations lead us to three conclusions: 1) assumptions of sedentariness in tropical birds should be made with extreme caution; 2) normal, but periodic phenomena may be easily overlooked, even in relatively long‐term studies; and 3) missing such phenomena jeopardizes the success of any conservation plan because over the long term a population may be dependent upon refugia only occasionally occupied.