Habitat Linkages and the Conservation of Tropical Biodiversity as Indicated by Seasonal Migrations of Three‐Wattled Bellbirds

Abstract

Abstract: Using radiotelemetry, we discovered that the Three‐wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata), one of Central America's largest frugivorous birds, has the most complex migratory pattern yet recorded for a tropical species. The annual migration cycle included 2‐ to 5‐month stopovers in four distinct life zones: two middle‐elevation and two lowland sites separated by as much as 200 km. We captured and radio‐tagged bellbirds during 4 years between July and September in middle‐elevation forest fragments of the Pacific slope, 6 km from Monteverde in the Tilaran mountain range of north‐central Costa Rica. These habitats, which exist almost exclusively as small, isolated fragments on private farms, are poorly represented (<2%) in Costa Rica's system of protected areas. During September and October, the bellbirds migrated from this site to the northeast into the lowland Atlantic forest of southeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Costa Rica. In Costa Rica these habitats have been heavily fragmented. In Nicaragua they remain intact but are highly threatened. In November and December, the bellbirds migrated from these Atlantic forests to heavily modified, little‐protected forests along the Pacific coast of southwestern Costa Rica, where they remained until March. Here, most individuals utilized forest remnants and second growth on private property. In March the Bellbirds moved from the coastal areas to middle‐elevation (1000–1800 m) moist forest on the Atlantic slope of the Tilaran mountains sites, where they bred. In June and July, they left the breeding area and moved back across the continental divide of the Tilaran Mountains to return to the middle‐elevation Pacific slopes where they had been captured. Our findings demonstrate the complicated ecological integration of geographically dispersed tropical ecosystems and the need for comprehensive conservation strategies that include representation of the full array of regional habitats and a greater emphasis on maintaining connectivity. The bellbird's migratory pattern reveals serious inadequacies in protected‐area networks of Costa Rica, a country that is considered to have one of the best systems of national parks and reserves in the Neotropics.