You can join ebird.org for more details but here is some useful info?

How to participate

?Get an eBird account: eBird.com is a worldwide bird checklist program used by millions of birders. It’s 100% free from start to finish.

?Watch birds on 9 May: It’s that simple. You don’t need to be a bird expert or go out all day long, even 10 minutes in your backyard counts. Global Big Day runs from midnight to midnight in your local time zone. You can report what you find from anywhere in the world.

?Enter what you see and hear in eBird: You can enter your sightings via website (eBird.org) or download the free eBird Mobile app, which makes adding what you see even easier. You can enter and submit lists while out birding, and the app tracks how far you’ve walked so you can focus on enjoying the birds. While you’re downloading free apps, try out the Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app for help with identification.

?Watch the sightings roll in: During the day, follow along with sightings from more than 170 countries in real-time on the Global Big Day page.

Good luck!!! and remember to tag Reserva Playa Tortuga in your social media, to see how are you all doing

We really hope that this help you to have fun during this quarantine and maybe it will become your new hobbie, you just need to go out to the garden and identify bird species. Good luck!

You can download the list by clicking here (press right button and save link as…)

What is the trigger for macaws to visit Ojochal and the surroundings of the reserve? That is the main question for the research that the student Marnix van Schaik from HAS University (Netherlands) carried on during his 5 months internship this year at Reserva Playa Tortuga.

Some of the questions that help him during the study were: What are the macaws doing?, what do they eat?, are there nest opportunities?, do the macaws avoid predators and competitors like toucans or aracaris?

Following is a summary that Marnix prepared after he finished the study:

The populations of scarlet macaws (Ara macao) in Central America have been declining for a long time. In Costa Rica, it has been moving in the right direction since 1980. In order to understand the macaws better and maintain the populations, a study was conducted in February 2019 to July 2019 into the population of macaws in the coastal side of Ojochal, Costa Rica.

By monitoring trails, there is examined why the macaws came to Ojochal. Various factors were taken, such as the behavior of the macaws, food sources that the macaws use, whether there are nesting places and whether the macaws avoid predators and competitors.

The results show that the macaws come to Ojochal every morning to spend the day. In midday, the macaws can be found in the higher mangrove trees where the macaws socialize. In the afternoon, 33% of the population goes to their food sources. The majority of them foresee the almonds present. The other part of the population stays a little bit longer in the mangroves and after goes back to the overnight accommodation, south of the research area. No nesting sites were found during the research. So this is not a reason why macaws come to Ojochal.

Another factor that has been included in the study but has no influence on the population of macaws is the factor predators and competitors of nests. No nests are found because the macaws are picky in the habitat of nesting places and not because the predators are in the area.

The macaws use Ojochal to socialize in the high mangroves and the macaws come to visit the food sources. However, with the rising water level, these trees are endangered and threaten to disappear. So it is not only the aquatic animals that will suffer from climate change. Macaws are also losing their safe habitats. Knowledge about safe areas that the macaws pass on for generations will be lost. People will, therefore, have to be more aware of the environment in which they live in order to maintain these places. Through the effort of organizations such as RPT, more will become known about nature and nature will be better preserved.

The coordinator of the Environmental Education & Outreach project, Melissa Jiménez-Kardentay, shares some thoughts about the last Summer Club, carried out between January 14th until the 31st.

After 3 weeks at full power with the guys from the camp we finished our Summer Club 2019 and we want to give an special thanks to the Food Bank, Cleveland High School Students in NC, Life Project Education, drivers for kids every day and the different donors for making it possible for these boys and girls have an experience of hand with Nature, alive, acting and choosing for nature and its conservation.
Grateful to the parents who entrust us one more year to establish environmental values in their sons and daughters.
See you the next year!

The objective of this initiative is to guide children and youth and promote conservation by inspiring an appreciation of natural resources near their communities.

This year a new group joined the Summer Club, therefore, now there are 3 groups:
“Vivo por Naturaleza”, 7 to 9 years old.
“Actúo por Naturaleza”, 10 to 12 years old.
“Elijo por Naturaleza”, 13 to 15 years old.

The proposed activities include research activities, presentations on marine life, sea turtles, their habitats and threats, beach cleaning and several field programs that include a visit to the sea turtle hatchery, work in the Butterfly Garden, installing traps for cameras, exit to Ballena Marine Park, Hacienda Baru, etc.

If your son / daughter / neighbor / friend / student could not participate this year, do not be discouraged, you just have to be visit our social media and website next year and sign up early, since the spaces fill up very quickly.

©Christian Seville

The methodology consists in walk the trails of the Reserve; along Playa Tortuga and some streets of Ojochal, especially in the upper part, at least twice a week, both in the morning and in the afternoon.

In these walks, when any of the birds mentioned above are spotted, the location is determined with GPS, and also note is taken of the activity they are doing: flying, eating (to identify the type of food) and/or nesting. The number of birds of the same species is also noted.

So far we can see that the toucans move mostly in pairs; the oropendolas in larger groups of couples; and the aracaris in groups of 4 to 7 birds.

Thanks to the help of neighbors from Upper Ojochal, a nest of oropendolas was already identify, close to Calle Papagayo.

Oropendola nest ©Christian Seville

This research aims to know more about the presence of these birds in the sector, and see if there is any relationship between the winter and summer seasons. At least, in the case of toucans, which have been studied for more than 2 years, it has seen a greater presence during the summer than in winter.

Thanks to the data obtained during the first 3 months of the year, a map was created in which the distribution of each of the birds can be appreciated.