Caribbean Landbird Monitoring

Landbirds spend the majority of their lives over land, and include birds like parrots, hummingbirds, songbirds, woodpeckers, todies, and raptors. The Caribbean is home to many landbird species, including our resident and endemic birds, as well as migratory species, but populations of many species are declining. Monitoring is essential to filling gaps in our knowledge about the status, trends, and habitat use of their populations to inform effective conservation actions.

BirdsCaribbean’s Landbird Monitoring Program aims to increase our knowledge of Caribbean landbirds by building regional monitoring capacity. The program was launched in 2021, with funding from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) Grant Program. Since then, with support from additional funders and our members, partners, and donors, the monitoring initiatives from this project have grown exponentially. With our partners across the region, we are building networks to provide training, resources, and community to monitor birds using several tools that are each suited to provide different—yet complementary—information about Caribbean landbird populations.

Caribbean Landbird Monitoring (CLM) Network

Information from bird surveys can help us understand how birds use different habitats in space and time, and allow us to evaluate population trends. Through the CLM Network, our partners are implementing standardized monitoring across many islands, sites, and habitat types using the Programa de América Latina para las Aves Silvestres (PROALAS) Manual. This manual was developed in Latin America for tropical habitats, aiming to engage local communities in monitoring, and provides guidance on how to conduct multi-level surveys and store data using eBird Caribbean.

Learn more about our Caribbean Landbird Monitoring Network.

Caribbean Bird Banding (CBB) Network

A group observes a bird banding demonstration. — Daniela Ventura del Puerto (Cuba) provides instruction on bird molt to workshop participants Giselle Raganoonan (Trinidad) and Elvin Manual Vargas Estevez (Dominican Republic).

Bird banding is a monitoring technique used throughout the world to gain valuable demographic and health information from birds in the hand. Birds are captured and given bands with unique identifying numbers so they’ll be recognized if they are captured again, no matter where they travel to.

The Caribbean Bird Banding Network aims to expand and unite bird banding operations in the insular Caribbean.

Learn more about our Caribbean Bird Banding Network.

Caribbean Motus Collaboration (CMC)

Motus-Receiver-station-map-Caribbean — Yellow dots represent the active Motus receiver stations in early 2021. The white box outlines the insular Caribbean.

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is a powerful collaborative research network that uses automated radio telemetry to monitor the movements of small animals. Motus (Latin for movement, or motion) is widely established in Canada and the US, and beginning to spread throughout Central and South America.

The Caribbean Motus Collaboration is a bird monitoring initiative that aims to expand the Motus network throughout the insular Caribbean. When BirdsCaribbean launched the Caribbean Motus Collaboration in 2021, there were no active stations on the islands. By early 2023, there were 8 active stations, and several more being planned. We are working with our partners to install and maintain stations in strategic locations, deploy nanotags on priority bird species, and develop educational materials.

Learn more about our Caribbean Motus Collaboration.

Visit the Landbird Monitoring Resources page to view and download manuals, data sheets, and educational materials.

Please contact the Landbird Monitoring Program Manager, Maya Wilson (maya.wilson@birdscaribbean.org) with any questions!