1. INTRODUCTION

Cockpit Country of west-central Jamaica is recognized nationally and globally for its unique biological diversity and for its ecological importance as being one of the largest contiguous tracts of wet limestone forest remaining in Jamaica and in the West Indies. With over 100 bird species recorded for the area, including 27 of Jamaicaπs 28 endemics and 36 Neotropical migrant species (the latter of which includes the globally-threatened Swainsonπs Warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii) and Bicknellπs Thrush (Catharus bicknelli)), Cockpit Country is recognized by BirdLife Jamaica (BLJ) and BirdLife International (BLI) as a major ≥Important Bird Area≤ (IBA) for the insular Caribbean. The diverse avian species which occur in the core 25,000 hectare forest block and peripheral habitats are not only maintained as large, viable populations, but their numbers, in turn, ensure that bird-dependent plants continue to thrive with the presence of their pollinators and seed dispersers. Maintaining (or, in certain instances, restoring) these functional relationships, with all of the unique components -- species, communities, and ecosystems -- is critical for ensuring the long-term persistence of a healthy Cockpit Country ecosystem.

Recognizing the importance of Cockpit Country and the need for comprehensive management, partnerships between Government and local and international NGOs have been developing over the past several years. One program, The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) USAID-funded "Parks-in-Peril" (PiP) program, assessed the current status of biodiversity and the human activities that threaten the Cockpit Country ecosystem using the adaptive management tool of Conservation Area Planning (CAP). This assessment identified important conservation targets, including the Jamaican Blackbird (Nesopsar nigerrimus) and its forest habitat, and is developing strategies to abate threats and improve the health of conservation targets. By maintaining extensive, closed-canopy forest, it is hoped that parasitism of Jamaican Blackbird nests by the Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) will be minimized. All birds nesting in Cockpit Country will benefit from this conservation umbrella species and the protection of its habitat.

Effective management of Cockpit Country requires the ability to monitor and evaluate conservation activities for their outcomes and to adapt management as necessary. This ability requires not only reliable and accurate information on focal conservation targets (or indicators of these targets) but also incorporating this information into management plans to achieve maximum benefit. To meet these needs, Windsor Research Centre, through the support of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), and TNC established an avian monitoring project, which:

• is collecting systematic data on resident and migratory bird distributions and their seasonal habitat usage across the gradient of land use types present in Cockpit Country;
• has identified areas that support Jamaican Blackbirds so that additional directed research may be undertaken for this PiP conservation target;
• is operating a permanent bird banding station for long-term monitoring of avian demography and physical condition of birds during critical stages of their life cycles (e.g., breeding vs. non-breeding seasons, arrival and departure of migrants);
• is training a core group of research assistants and professional natural resource managers to implement their own avian monitoring projects and to have skills to assist other researchers
• is integrating the results of this avian monitoring project with Forestry Department's national biodiversity database to ensure all data are accessible to resource managers and policy makers

The bird banding occurs in an area where WRC will be encouraging scientific research on forest restoration. Changes in avian health parameters and demography will serve as one type of indicator variable to assess long-term efforts of rehabilitating degraded wildlife habitat in Cockpit Country.

This report summarizes the results of this project during the NFWF funding period from May 1, 2002 through April 30, 2004.

2. CONSERVATION OBJECTIVES

The over-all goals of this project were to develop local capacity to conduct reliable research, to establish baseline data on habitat use and the effects of habitat quality on resident and migratory bird populations in Cockpit Country and to develop the capacity to use this information for effective adaptive management of this important ecosystem. To achieve these goals, the project implemented activities for long-term monitoring of Cockpit Country avifauna by:

• ∑ Establishing permanent geo-referenced bird monitoring points, with standard, replicable methodology to ensure valid future comparisons
• ∑ Documenting bird use in different habitats (including human-modified) and integrating this with other activities that assess the Cockpit Country forest ecosystem
• ∑ Establishing a permanent bird banding station
• Training local Jamaicans in avian monitoring techniques
• Making available results of research activities to decision-makers and deriving further research/monitoring activities from dialogue with resource managers.

3. PROJECT FUNDING

WRC received a NFWF Challenge Grant of US$45,000 for an original project period of May 1, 2002 - April 30, 2003. WRC was granted an extension through October 31, 2003 after Challenge Funds were provided by TNC for the period of October 31, 2002 through October 31, 2003. On September 17, 2003, WRC signed a contract with the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) for a grant of US$100,00 to expand the bird banding component of the project. NFWF approved a project extension through April 30, 2004 to enable WRC to access the grant balance with these Challenge Funds and to complete activities of the NFWF proposal. Funding also was provided by Forestry Department's Trees-for-Tomorrow Project, which is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

4. PROJECT ACTIVITIES & THEIR EVALUATION

As delineated in the proposal approved by NFWF (Table 1), WRC's Cockpit Country Bird Monitoring Project encompassed the following activities for training professional resource managers, monitoring the composition and health of bird populations, and incorporating these research findings into management plans:

Table 1. Project Objectives & Evaluation

Objectives	Indicators	Verifying Media
1. Establish permanent bird banding station	1a. Acquire equipment 1b. Initiate banding program	1a. Banding records submitted to BLJ and NEPA
2. Trained field research assistants	2a. Identify bird species 2b. Handle/band bird 2c. Examination on research ethics	2a. > 90% accuracy 2b. < 1% mortality 2c. > 90% test score 2d. WRC/BLJ certificate
3. Establish permanent bird monitoring points	3a. Acquire topographic maps 3b. Liaise with FD-TFT 3c. Replicate points identified	3a. WRC GIS established 3b. Georeferenced map
4. Generate baseline map on bird-habitat associations	4a. Data analysis and computer-generated mapping	4a. Report submitted and data available through national databases
5. Effective dissemination of results to resource managers and decision-makers	5a. Participation in Adaptive Management Seminar 5b. Research activities affirmed or modified	5a. Attendance record of seminars 5b. Report submitted to CC-PiP and IBA programmes

4.1. WRC Bird Banding Demonstration Laboratory

4.1.1. Infrastructure and Protocols

A permanent bird banding demonstration laboratory was established on the five-acre organic farm of Windsor Great House (T1). The farm supports a mix of coffee, citrus and fruit trees adjacent to sugar cane and closed-canopy, regenerating wet limestone forest. Two additional satellite stations were established, also in Windsor. One station (T2) is in a five-acre area of regenerating pasture adjacent to wet limestone forest; this area is available for research on forest regeneration processes and is owned by Michael Schwartz, owner of Windsor Great House and a director of WRC. The second station (T3) is also in an area of regenerating pasture surrounded by wet limestone forest; this area is leased by a local resident and we pay a small monthly rent (US$25 for two days per month), which encourages the owner not to return the site to cattle pasture.

We are currently operating 12 nets (2.5 x 9 m; 32 mm; 110-d; 5 shelves) at each of the three stations, for two days per month per station. Twelve nets are operated safely by three assistants, who have been trained in extracting birds safely from nets, banding, and conducting physical assessments, and one data transcriber, who is not required to have skills in handling birds. At a minimum, the two resident directors of WRC, S. Koenig and M. Schwartz, would be able to operate six nets to maintain a monthly constant effort. Because of this permanent station and the establishment of the baseline data sets, WRC is now attracting other researchers interested in avian studies, including one doctoral student from Berkeley (CA) who will be studying hummingbirds in July 2004, one student from the University of Maryland, who will be studying the effects of deforestation and patch size on bird communities in 2005-2006 and one faculty member from Humboldt State University (CA) who will be following-up on his doctoral research in Jamaica on the effects of shade and chemical coffee on bird communities and expanding his research to new topics of avian conservation and habitat protection in Jamaica. Unfortunately, our colleagues in the Life Sciences Department of the University of the West Indies have yet to identify students with a committed interest in avian research associated with the types of data generated from banding / mark-recapture studies.

Under this project, we developed data sheets to collect demographic information on all resident and migrant birds captured (Appendix 1). The objective was to create a standardized form to record information that would lead to accurate conclusions about age, sex, reproductive status and physical condition (e.g, fat deposition) of birds. The data form ensures that all birds are examined systematically and, for banders who may not have experience with certain species, such as researchers coming from overseas, the data form was designed to guide them through an assessment to reach correct conclusions about the age and sex of an individual bird (or to allow someone with experience to reach the same conclusion). Additionally, all banding apprentices are trained in understanding the scientifically rigorous principle that a blank box on the form is quite different from a null condition of "no" or "0" i.e., they confirmed the absence of a certain condition versus not knowing the information because they failed to look. We developed the data sheet from a template provided by Bird Studies Canada (BSC) and made revisions through literature review (e.g., Ralph et al. 1993) and in collaboration with Certified Banding Instructors from Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO). We believe our data forms could serve as a template for standardized data collection throughout Jamaica.

4.1.2. Banding Results

Since implementing the bird banding in May 2002, we have netted / handled 3024 birds: 1946 were newly banded (1519 resident birds, 427 migrants), 819 were recaptured, and 259 were released without bands (mostly hummingbirds) (Table 2). Our species list includes 40 resident species (including two introduced resident species) and 22 migratory species. By the end of 2004, we will have sufficient data to conduct preliminary analyses on survivorship (as a function of age class and sex and among habitat types (stations) for the most common resident species: Jamaican Tody (Todus todus), Banaquit (Coereba flaveola), Black-faced Grassquit (Tiaris bicolor), Greater Antillean Bullfinch (Loxigilla violacea), and Orangequit (Euneornis campestris).




Table 2. Birds banded from May 2002 - 2004. See Appendix 2 for scientific names.

Resident Banded		Migrant Banded		Resident Unbanded
Zenaida Dove Common Ground Dove Caribbean Dove Ruddy Quail Dove Crested Quail Dove Yellow-billed Parrot Mangrove Cuckoo Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo Smooth-billed Ani Jamaican Mango Red-billed Streamertail Jamaican Tody Jamaican Woodpecker Jamaican Elaenia Jamaican Pewee Sad Flycatcher Rufous-tailed Flycatcher Stolid Flycatcher Loggerhead Kingbird Jamaican Becard Rufous-throated Solitaire White-chinned Thrush White-eyed Thrush Jamaican Vireo Blue Mountain Vireo Yellow Warbler Bananaquit Jamaican Euphonia Yellow-faced Grassquit Black-faced Grassquit Yellow-shouldered Grassquit Greater Antillean Bullfinch Orangequit J'can Stripe-headed Tanager Greater Antillean Grackle Jamaican Oriole Chestnut Manakin TOTAL	1 14 1 19 1 1 1 4 2 18 3 10 106 2 27 1 14 29 1 13 1 12 25 15 24 1 8 543 29 46 176 56 137 154 1 8 14 1 1519	Belted Kingfisher Grey Kingbird Black-whiskered Vireo Gray-cheeked Thrush American Redstart Black-and-White Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Magnolia Warbler Northern Parula Prairie Warbler Swainson's Warbler Western Palm Warbler Worm-eating Warbler Northern Waterthrush Louisiana Waterthrush Ovenbird Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting	1 1 214 3 21 4 2 50 24 3 1 7 6 1 4 9 28 2 43 1 2 427	Green Heron^1 Common Ground Dove^1 Caribbean Dove^1 Ruddy Quail Dove^1 Olive-throated Parakeet^1 Green-rumped Parrotlet^1 J'can Lizard Cuckoo^1 Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo Smooth-billed Ani^1 Jamaican Mango^1 Red-billed Streamertail^1 Jamaican Tody Sad Flycatcher^2 Rufous-throated Solitaire White-chinned Thrush^3 Bananaquit^2 Yellow-faced Grassquit^2 Black-faced Grassquit^2 Orangequit Greater Antillean Grackle^1	2 3 1 3 2 2 1 1 2 48 134 4 3 1 7 25 2 9 3 3 (256)
				Migrant Unbanded
				American Redstart^2 Black-throated Blue Warbler^2 Chestnut-sided Warbler^2	1 1 1 (3) 259

¹Correct band size not in-stock at WRC.

²Released / escaped from net or station before band applied.

³Legs damaged by scaly mite (Knemidocoptes spp.) infestation, unable to band.




With the establishment of stations in three different habitat types in January 2004, we are beginning to compare species composition, health, and demography in a subset of landuse types. All stations support similar avian communities, as determined both by the species netted and by species we detected during operation of nets but which we did not capture (Appendix 2). In the next three months, as the project continues through the support of EFJ, we will be establishing permanent vegetation monitoring points within and adjacent to the banding sites to quantify habitat characteristics, including structure and fruiting and flowering phenology (timing of food availability).

The numbers of individuals of migratory species, particularly of Black-throated Blue Warblers (Dendroica caerulescens) and Common Yellowthroats (Geothlypis trichas) enabled WRC to participate in the Institute for Bird Populations' Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal (MoSI) programme, which is establishing a network of North American, Mexican, Central American, and Caribbean banding station to monitor populations of migrant birds on the summer breeding and winter grounds <http://www.birdpop.org/MoSI/MoSI.htm>. We began operating as a MoSI station in October 2003 and will continue to participate in this programme.

Data on migratory birds were given to Catherine Levy, who holds the US Geological Survey (USGS) Master Station permit for BirdLife Jamaica (permit number: 22743) and who is responsible for reporting to USGS Bird Banding Laboratory. Dr. Koenig is a subpermittee of the BLJ permit (USGS no. 22743A). A list of local birds that were handled and banded is provided annually to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), which issues local research permits. WRC currently is developing an on-line database of monthly banding results, complete with search capabilities for birds banded in Windsor but recaptured by others elsewhere in Jamaica: <http://wrc.cockpitcountry.com/bbdatahome.php>. We currently are resolving technical issues related to the search capabilities.

Problems encountered: None

4.2. Bird Banding Skills Development

With the support of this project, WRC hosted two training workshops to introduce local Jamaicans to the techniques and ethics of bird banding. The first workshop was held April 30 - May 17, 2002 in collaboration with BLJ and BSC. Six persons participated in this workshop: one employee from the Institute of Jamaica's Natural History Division, four affiliated with Community-based Organisations (CBO), and one US Peace Corps volunteer (Table 3). From this group, one trainee from the Dolphin Head National Trust (DHNT) CBO, along with WRC's Dr. Koenig, went to BSC's Long Point Bird Observatory, Ontario, Canada, in the fall of 2002 for advanced training. Based on the continued local interest in skills development, WRC hosted a second 3-week banding workshop in January 2004 in collaboration with Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO), Oregon.