Surveying Shorebirds in Maranhoa Brazil

The largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world covers the Brazilian coastline at the equator near the mouth of the Amazon river.   The forest extends out into the Atlantic in long peninsulas tipped by wind swept and mostly inaccessible beaches. The forest, beaches and their long intertidal mud and sandy low tide flats support one of the largest wintering population of shorebirds in the hemisphere. The red knots, a listed species in both North and South America, also use this remote tropical coast.

 With scientists from US, Canada, England and Brazil, we will attempt a large scale mapping of this important habitat using state-of-the-art satellite mapping. We will do this from a 50 ft catamaran and two zodiacs hopping from one mangrove estuary to another and conducting bird surveys targeting key areas over a 150 miles section of the coast. We will be the first to survey some areas. Our goal is to figure out the main threats to both bird and habitat.

This survey will be followed with an attempt to catch ruddy turnstones and red knots in the town of Panaquatira and Curupu Island to  re-catch birds with tracking devices and to test for Avian Flu.  

I will be posting blogs at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ website over the next three weeks.