A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE
AVIFAUNA OF LA TIGRA NATIONAL PARK, HONDURAS WITH AN EMPHASIS
ON MIST-NETTING RESULTS
Cloud forests worldwide
have been greatly impacted by human intervention.
Unfortunately, the birds of cloud forests are one of the least
studied avian communities and the avifauna of the cloud
forests of Honduras are no exception. Using mist-netting, this
study explored the avifaunal diversity in a Honduran cloud
forest as well as various aspects of migratory bird biology
including their energetic states during the over-wintering
period and explored the question whether cloud forest habitat
was important as a stopover location for migratory birds
during spring passage. Three thousand one hundred and sixty
eight net-hours were accumulated over 50 days of mist-netting.
Twenty-two Neotropical-Nearctic migratory species were banded
with an additional eight Neotropical-Nearctic migratory
species and one hybrid encountered during casual observations.
Thirty-nine resident species were encountered during
mist-netting with an additional 27 observed casually. In
general, the study sites examined did not appear to be
important stopover locations for migratory birds during their
spring migration. However, the field season did not appear to
encompass the entire spring migratory period, thus these
results are considered preliminary. Several new species were
reported for the park. Further studies are recommended to have
a more comprehensive understanding of the avifauna – both
migratory and resident – present in the park.
