Rainforest Biodiversity Group

The rapidly evolving Motus technology is revolutionizing avian field research and we want to use it to our advantage! This year, RBG is raising funds to support our Cabanisi Project which focuses on studying the Cabanis's Ground-Sparrow (Melozone cabanisi) a bird endemic to Costa Rican with an extremely restricted distribution. Many factors are affecting it's survival, leading it to be considered a Near Threatened species. During the next phase of research, we will be using radio-telemetry to determine several aspects of this species' ecology such as home range and dispersal, data which remains unknown to science but will be crucial for its conservation.

To determine these aspects of their life history we will fit the ground-sparrows with modern Lifetags, which function with solar power and will last as long as the bird is alive, providing a vast amount of information. No longer are we limited to a finite battery life!

Our Bird-a-thon is raising funds to purchase the telemetry equipment and tags necessary for this study this year. The telemetry equipment we will purchase will not only be used for this project, but it will also allow us to conduct more groundbreaking work with other study species such as Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers, Wood Thrush, (species that we have already put tags on), and others.

You can make a difference by donating today to Rainforest Biodiversity Group!