Birds
Bruce E. Young
David B. McDonaldWhy Monteverde?
Birds have been a major focus of study in Monteverde.
The first biologists to study in Monteverde were or-
nithologists William Buskirk and George Powell, who
arrived in 1970 on the recommendation of F. Gary
Stiles. They were attracted by the low stature of the
cloud forest, which made research on mixed-species
flocks more tractable than in tall lowland forests. The
number of publications since then (110 as of 1996)
and the number of different first authors of those pub-
lications (31) attest to the extent to which Monteverde
birds have been studied. Sixteen Ph.D. students have
written dissertations based largely on data collected
on the birds of Monteverde (Table 6.1). In compari-
son, other well-known tropical study sites such as La
Selva in Costa Rica or Manu in Peru have supported
less graduate work on birds (five and four disserta-
tions, respectively). Two major strengths of the Monte-
verde bird research are autecological studies and bird-
plant interaction studies. Although autecological
studies may be declining because of changing scien-
tific fashion (Levey and Stiles 1994), studies on single
species or small groups of species have abounded at
Monteverde. We know much about certain species but
have little information about the bird community as
a whole. Most studies of avian community ecology in
Monteverde have been in the context of interactions
with plants.
Monteverde's avifauna is attractive to ornitholo-
gists for five reasons:(1) Unusual behaviors: From the perspective of tem-
perate ornithologists, many species of birds in
Monteverde exhibit bizarre behaviors. For example,
dual-male duets and dances by male Long-tailed Mana-
kins are phenomena that are virtually unique in the
animal kingdom (McDonald and Potts 1994; Fig. 6.1;
see McDonald, "Cooperation Between Male Long-
tailed Manakins," pp. 204-205). Similarly, the March-
July chorus of Three-wattled Bellbirds, heard for kilo-
meters in every direction, draws attention to this
species (Snow 1977; Fig. 6.2). Many who walk into a
pasture in the dairy community have been mobbed by
Brown Jays and wondered about their communal so-
cial behavior (Lawton and Guindon 1981, Lawton and
Lawton 1985). These vocal species literally cry out to
be studied.6