OVERVIEW AND UPDATE OF BIRD RECORDS FROM THE TROPICAL ANDES: IMBABURA PROVINCE, ECUADOR

Abstract

Historically, bird lists have constituted a powerful instrument for developing effective legal conservation measures. I present a list of birds from Imbabura Province, which is part of the Tropical Andes, the world’s most biologically diverse area. Although Imbabura has been established as a UNESCO Global Geopark and 35% of its surface is protected, the province also has an extensive history of landscape fragmentation and habitat degradation that dates back to pre-Columbian times. I looked through and selected records from the GBIF database (1818–2022). This database considers any biodiversity information sources, from museum specimens, the records of eBird birdwatchers to georeferences of smartphone photos shared by naturalists. I also examined the Google Scholar database and thesis digital repositories, searching for references with records of Imbabura birds. I extracted the geographic coordinates of more recent bird sighting sites (2018-2020), and I uploaded them into a geographic information system overlaid with a land use cover layer. I used 4 classes for land use: (1) URB, anthropic zone; (2) AGR, agricultural land; (3) NAT, both forest as shrubby and herbaceous vegetation; and (4) AQU, water bodies. I estimated each species’ occurrence in each landscape. The results are an inventory of 753 bird species recorded in Imbabura, with 146 species categorized under some threat level. Due to the high number of bird species observed at Imbabura, 45% of Ecuador birds, public policies, and civil awareness are necessary to engage in conservation actions and other activities supporting the maintenance of this biodiversity. This study underscores the importance of citizen science and free database platforms for research.