Support the Bocas de Toro HawkWatch in Panama!

The Bocas del Toro Community HawkWatch needs your help!

 

Your donation can help us provide training and income for local hawk counters so that we can continue monitoring at one of the world's most prolific hawk migration sites, where millions of raptors have been observed each migratory season since fall 2021!

Millions of hawks, vultures, and other raptors migrate between North and South America every year. The narrow isthmus of Panama acts as a bottleneck for these migrating birds, causing enormous concentrations of raptors to be observed in areas such as Bocas del Toro and creating a unique research opportunity.

In early October 2021, Karl Bardon, an experienced hawk counter, accepted an invitation to start monitoring the fall raptor migration in Bocas Ridge. Several researchers and indigenous interns at ADOPTA also joined in and have since continued the monitoring.

 

Our results are submitted to the Hawk Migration Association of North America's Raptor Migration Database and can be viewed here: https://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=920

https://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=943

https://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=944

Funding is required to train and equip new interns – including young indigenous women – in the methodology used in the raptor counts. Additionally, many members of the local communities, including the family who hosts our team, have no electricity or running water. Income from the stipends paid to local interns directly supports the local economy, further encouraging habitat conservation.

Much of the funding for our research efforts has come from private donors, such as the Bocas Ridge Hotel & Residences, and income from ecotourism. Unfortunately, these funding sources are insufficient to cover our monitoring activities by themselves. This fundraiser will allow us to recruit and train new interns for the fall 2023 and spring 2024 migration seasons.

 

You can also support this project in other ways. We encourage anyone with birding experience to volunteer as a counter; we would also love to accept donations of used equipment (binoculars, spotting scopes, etc.). If these options interest you, please reach out to us via the contact option below or through a direct message on social media (@AdoptaBosque)

For more information on this project and the other exciting conservation activities being carried out by ADOPTA, we hope you will visit our website (www.adoptabosque.org) and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AdoptaBosque

Muchísimas gracias for your support!