A Wounaan Bird Count will show the world the biodiversity conservation the Wounaan people have practiced for generations.
- Chief Rito Ismare
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The Wounaan Bird Count
Join us for the 2025 Christmas Bird Count
January 5, 2025
Puerto Lara, Panama
2024 Christmas Bird Count Results
On January 5, 2024, 32 participants over 18 hours counted 142 species and 1,225 total birds along four routes in Puerto Lara.
Puerto Lara birders (20 of them) were joined by Wounaan bird guides from Rio Hondo and Rio Platanares, Rosalinda Mepaquito, Alexander Osorio, Lilin Osorio and Isaia Puchicama; the staff of the ecotourism project, Aris Delgado, Osiris Camargo, Keruby Membora and Chenier Carpio; Scott Hecker, Marsha Kellogg, and Spencer Purple from the United States and Ricardo Paguerdini from Italy.
This year’s count was carried out by a multi-community and multi-national crew, organized by Christmas Bird Count coordinator, Jairo Cheucarama.
2024 Global Big Day
May 11, 2024
Global Big Day is an annual event organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in which birdwatchers from around the world come together to document as many bird species as possible in a 24-hour period.
Eberti Barrigon of Rio Platanares recorded 90 species and Mende Puchicama, Rosalinda Mepaquito and Alexander Osorio of Rio Hondo recorded 78 species on Global Big Day. Their counts contributed to the total 387 species counted in Panama during this global, one-day bird count and conservation event.
According to eBird, globally, more than 63,000 birders submitted 156,000 checklists, contributing to the observation of more than 7,725 bird species. Colombia led the species count with an astounding 1,526 species recorded, followed by Peru with 1,428 species, and Brazil with 1,201 species.
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The Oropendolas Negras
The Oropéndolas Negras (Black Oropendolas) is the first ever team of Wounaan bird watchers. On January 5, 2018 they carried out the first bird count in Wounaan territory.
In July 2017, ten volunteers from Puerto Lara joined Wounaan cultural experts and Wounaan National Congress leaders to learn about birdwatching from Native Future volunteers Janice Jorgensen and Robert Mesta. By the end of the three days, the community of Puerto Lara asked for more and the volunteers formed themselves into the birdwatching group, the Oropendolas Negras. Since then, on a monthly basis, they are out with Darien bird specialist, Ismael (Nando) Quiroz identifying the birds of their community by sight and sound.
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Participating Wounaan are also weavers, carvers and members of their local ecotourism associations. They look forward to hosting fellow bird enthusiasts from around the world!
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Wounaan, young and old, are participating in Native Future sponsored trainings to identify and count the avian biodiversity of their community, Puerto Lara. They are learning their birds in Spanish, English and in their native language Wounaan meu.
In partnership with University of Georgia ecological anthropologist Dr. Julia Velasquez Runk and Wounaan Cultural Experts, the Wounaan Bird Count is developing a Puerto Lara bird list and educational materials that will teach their children the cultural significance of their birdlife in their native language.
Training
Rainforest Conservation
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Panama is habitat for more than 1,000 different species of birds; at least 600 of them are found in the Darien, such as the Oropendola Negra. Already, Panama has lost 40% of its forest cover.
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More than 50% of Panama's remaining tropical forests are found in Indigenous territory and protected areas. Their stewardship is often the only reason much of Panama's forests are still standing.
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The Wounaan community of Puerto Lara shares territory with the ecologically important and threatened Filo Tallo de Canglon Hydrological Reserve. A vast network of mangrove and Darien tropical forest wetlands that is rapidly being lost to development, Puerto Lara at its western most edge is one of its best hopes for protection.
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If we want to protect rainforest biodiversity, let's invest in the people who are already conserving them.
