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The Importance of Neotropical Ornithology
To conserve Neotropical birds, listen to ornithologists in the Neotropics.
© Jen Goellnitz
To protect our migratory birds, it’s vital that we understand their behaviors both during the breeding season in North America and when they migrate to the Neotropics — a region that includes Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Yet historical and systemic barriers in scientific research have stifled contributions from local Neotropical scientists and conservationists for centuries. Learn more about how to support Neotropical ornithology on the new season of Bring Birds Back.
BirdNote®
The Importance of Neotropical Ornithology
Written by Jasmine ‘Jazzi’ Johnson
Purbita Saha: This is BirdNote.
[Environmental recording, Chiapas, Mexico — ML148053]
Purbita Saha: To protect our migratory birds, it’s vital that we understand their behaviors both during the breeding season in North America and when they migrate to the Neotropics — a region that includes Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
But as a 2023 journal article explained, our understanding of these separate worlds is very uneven. Historical and systemic barriers have hindered the progress of critical research by local Neotropical scientists and conservationists for centuries.
Ernesto RI: Ninety-five percent of the literature is done in the north, in the breeding season. We don't know much about what happens to those birds in the non-breeding season or during migration. And it creates a lot of misconceptions.
Purbita Saha: Mexican ornithologist, professor, and contributing author Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza, says that those misconceptions add to the dominance of northern ornithology and limits the quality of work available to scientists in the neotropics.
Ernesto RI: With birds that do these amazing migrations and then come and breed in a matter of a few weeks and then start their migration again, you start looking at these very fast paced birds. And then you come to the tropics and you see that life is slower. The existing paradigm is that birds must be a fast paced organism and we're not willing to consider the idea that the basal state may be the slow paced one.
Purbita Saha: Learn more about the importance of Neotropical ornithology on the new season of Bring Birds Back. Available now in your favorite podcast app or at BirdNote dot org. I’m Purbita Saha.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Environmental recording, Chiapas, Mexico ML148053 recorded by L. Irby Davis.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote December 2024
Narrator: Purbita Saha
ID# PodBBB-35-2024-12-02 PodBBB-35
Purbita Saha
Narrator