Welcome Birders!

Look for a new bird posted in Birder's Corner each Monday

Welcome birders of all ages and persuasions. Saving Terra is devoted to the preservation of biodiversity in tropical forests and savannas. It is inspired by my quest to see as many species of birds as I can in the habitats that I travel to. In doing so, I cannot ignore the conservation issues that threaten the very existence of the birds that I love, like the Blue-throated Motmot below:

Photo credit: Rainforest Alliance

In this section of the Saving Terra Substack, I will bring you bird-centric photos and commentary reflecting my travels to different countries and the challenges to conservation that I encounter. Every Monday we aim to post a new bird or birds in this section. Keep an eye on your Inbox for emails from Saving Terra-Birder’s Corner. Please explore other sections of the site as well to get a flavor of the locations from other perspectives.

It is our intent to bring to the screen here some of the wonderful birds we see on our tours of tropical forests and savannas. In general, a photograph or video will be accompanied by the name of the species, the family that it’s in, where we saw it and some of its defining characteristics. Often, we include a brief statement of the threats that it faces in the wild.

Some of you will be motivated to learn more about the bird. We find the best source to be Ebird Explore, a platform sponsored by Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology. When you go to this site, there will be a spot for you to input the species name. After confirming the bird you want, there will be some photos, some recordings, a range map and a more comprehensive discussion of the species. (To take advantage of the site’s power, you can subscribe annually and find out what extensive research reveals about the bird habits, habitats and much more of each species.)

Let’s try it with a couple of species we encountered in the largest wetland in the world, the northern Pantanal of Brazil in July of 2024. The bird in the photo is an arboreal species known as a White-throated Piping-Guan and the bird in the video clip is a larger, mostly terrestrial species called a Bare-faced Curassow. Each is a member of the avian family known as Cracids, which is found only in the Americas. Both birds depend on forested habitats for survival. The forests of the Pantanal, however, are severely threatened by man-set fires, herbicides and other forms of clearance for cattle ranching. The members of this family also are heavily hunted for food. Few areas in this region are sufficiently protected to insure the survival of these species.

I hope you enjoy Birder’s Corner. It is my pleasure to share birds from around the world with you.

White-throated Piping-Guan

Bare-faced Currasow prancing around