CATIE’s Bird Monitoring Station (PMA in Spanish) was opened in January of 2008 with the aim of collecting long-term data on avian use of multiple landuses. Since first opening our nets we have captured thousands of birds from approximately 130 different species. We mist net six different landuses on the CATIE farm, located in the Turriabla Valley of Costa Rica, within the Volcan Central Talamanca Biological Corridor. The landuses include coffee with Erythrina shade, an abandoned coffee sites (approx 5 years), sugar cane, live fence in a pasture system, a cacao orchard, and a riparian forest. Both migratory and resident species of birds are captured, measured, banded and released. We put our nets up three mornings per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Visitors are more than welcome to join us in the field as are school groups. For more information, contact us using the information above.

The PMA collaborates with a network of stations in Costa Rica and the US sharing our data through Partners in Flight, the US Forest Service, and the Institute for Bird Populations. This international effort permits a greater understanding of how landuse change, and climate change affect the migratory patterns of neotropical migrants. Although we have only been open for 2 years, we already have several individuals that be returned to see us both on the way south, and on the return trip north each year (and in the same landuses!).

At a local level, we work closely with the Steering Committee of the Volcan Central Talamanca Biological Corridor in a new effort to start up a participatory monitoring program that calls on residents of the corridor to report sightings of 15 indicator species. The local efforts are critical to maintaining biological connectivity between the central range of Costa Rica, and the Talamanca range to the south. Our biological corridor is just one small stepping stone in the greater Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Our data has also been used to map connectivity hotspots for a range of species found in the corridor. These maps are being used in local planning efforts, including payment for ecosystem service schemes.