Manomet recently led a team of 15 specialists from 7 partner organizations on a 10-day onsite workshop to observe shorebird use along the Brazilian Amazon River. Juliana Bosi de Almeida, Manomet’s Managing Director, Flyways, coordinated the effort, which is the first ever of its kind. The activities in Brazil are part of a larger project to understand how many shorebirds use the Amazon Basin rivers as stopover sites, and how they distribute themselves in this region, which is greater than 2/3 of the continental United States.
Preliminary efforts were conducted in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia the previous year, but this is the first time shorebirds using the Brazilian side of the Amazon were the main focus. During the 10-day boat trip, the team discussed differences and similarities of the habitats found in the different countries, while also assessing habitats and shorebirds found along the Solimões River (the Brazilian name for upper Amazon River). We are still gathering information from the bird lists and will share the number of birds and species we found in the near future. Until then, here are a few photos of the work in progress by Brad Winn, Vice President of Resilient Habitats. Our partners on the survey included the Brazilian National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), Point Blue, the U.S. Forest Service, University of Massachusetts, SAVE Brasil, Corbidi, and Asociación Calidris.