A total of 3,021 plant species, including 755 tree
species, have been identified in the Monteverde forest.
The most species- rich component is epiphytes, with
878 species (plate 13- 8). More than 450 species of
orchids occur. The most abundant families of trees in
Monteverde are Lauraceae (laurels), Rubiaceae (the
madder family, which includes coffee and Cinchona,
the plant from which quinine, used to treat malaria,
is extracted), Fabaceae (legumes), Moraceae (figs),
and Euphorbiaceae (spurges). At La Selva Biological
Station, a lowland rain forest site in Costa Rica, the five
most abundant tree families are Fabaceae, Lauraceae,
Rubiaceae, Annonaceae (custard apples, pawpaws),
and Euphorbiaceae. The overlap between dominant
tree families in montane and lowland forest is obvious.
High endemism is characteristic of tropical montane
cloud forests. The tropical Andes and the Amazon
Basin each contain approximately the same number of
bird species (791 and 788, respectively) but the Andes
have more than twice as many endemic species as the
lowland area (318, compared with 152).
Some cloud forests are so remote and difficult to
reach that new species of birds, all endemics, have
been discovered even relatively recently. Intrepid
ornithologists have described a new species of
cotinga, a wren, two antpittas, and an owl (plate 13-
9), all from northern and central Andean cloud forests.
Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica has five
endemic salamanders and 19 endemic frogs and toads
(anurans), for a total of 24 endemic amphibian species.
Monteverde also has 14 endemic reptiles (four lizards
and 10 snakes).Though most Caribbean islands contain some
endemic species, they are often not confined only to
cloud forest, thus endemism of birds is less pronounced
in Caribbean cloud forests than in those of the Andes.
Nonetheless, it is interesting that the Elfin- woods
Warbler (Setophaga angelae), an endemic strictly
confined to small areas of Puerto Rican cloud forest,
was discovered only as recently as 1971.Birds and a Bear, Oh My
The most conspicuous vertebrates of cloud forests are
birds. Numerous species, many endemic, are restricted
to various elevation zones (plate 13- 10).
One of the most spectacular Neotropical birds, the
Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno; plate
15- 19), nests in Central American cloud forests. Other
quetzal species are found in South America. Along with
some other cloud forest bird species, quetzals, which
are fundamentally fruit eaters, migrate seasonally to
lower elevations as fruit abundances change.
The Andean Cock- of- the- rock (Rupicola peruvianus;
plate 13- 11), a large cotinga and close relative of the
lowland Guianan Cock- of- the- rock (R. rupicola;
chapter 10), nests in rocky ravines near streams at low-
and mid- elevation montane forests. Males gather at
subcanopy leks at daybreak to court females. Unlike
Guianan Cock- of- the- Rocks, Andean males seem to
cooperate, in groups of two, to court females, though,
within the pair only one, the dominant male, willPlate 13- 12. The Plate- billed Mountain- Toucan (Andigena
laminirostris). Photo by Clayton Taylor.Plate 13- 11. This is a male Andean Cock- of- the- rock. These
birds really light up a misty cloud forest. Photo by Nancy
Norman.chapter 13 scaling the andes 239