El Triunfo Cloud Forest Reserve

BirdNote^®  

The Cloud Forest of El Triunfo

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.
[Highland Guan display vocalization]
What is making that wonderful sound? High in the mountains of Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, a male Highland Guan is performing his territorial display. [Highland Guan vocalization] Looking like a slim turkey, two feet long and all black, the Highland Guan perches on a tree-branch, whistles, and then glides on vibrating wings. The resulting wondrous sound is like no other.
[Highland Guan display – whistle followed by wing whir]
The bird’s display creates a sound emblematic of the cloud forest of El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. Clouds and fog roll frequently through the reserve, creating a lush forest wonderland. Bromeliads and orchids cover massive tropical oaks.
    Flute-like voices of Rufous-browed Wrens echo through the forest [Rufous-browed Wren song], in concert with glistening songs of Brown-backed Solitaires. [Brown-backed Solitaire song] The endangered Horned Guan thrives here, too, a bird so scarce and secretive it was long thought extinct.
Cloud forest makes up less than 1% of the world’s forest, and its conservation is crucial.  At El Triunfo, the display of the Highland Guan testifies to a conservation success.
[Highland Guan display vocalization – whistles followed by wing whir]
Today’s show brought to you by The Bobolink Foundation. For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.
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Sounds of the birds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Highland Guan 55402 recorded by D. Delaney; song of Rufous-browed Wren 127203 recorded by C. Marantz; song of Brown-backed Solitaire 109226 by G.A. Keller.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2012 Tune In to Nature.org   July 2012      Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#   eltriunfo-01-2012-07-29    eltriunfo-01