Save an endangered southwest willow flycatcher

Thank you for helping to protect habitat for willow flycatchers that are wintering in Central America. Your support made it possible for us to maintain our long-term southwest willow flycatcher monitoring at three sites in western Nicaragua. More importantly, we have been able to engage with farmers to encourage them to protect habitat until mid to late May when the migrants have left.

Here are some exciting project updates:

One major landowner with a sizeable willow flycather population in northwestern Nicaragua has agreed to protect the habitat and to work with neighbors to do the same. As an incentive and at the farmers request, we made a large outdoor banner for his farm that recognizes his property as a conservation area for flycathers.

Our birding team participated in the Global Big Day event and documented the presence of flycatchers on May 8th, highlighting the need to protect habitat into the month. Farmers traditional burn field from mid April to beginning of May. With your support we will work to reach additional farmers with the message to delay burning. 

You are helping science! After delays due to Covid, the feathers collected in February 2020 in El Salvador are nearly ready for export to the U.S. for DNA analysis with the Bird Genome Project. This genome project is the one that has linked wintering willow-flycatchers with endangered birds from breeding areas in the southwestern United States.

Thanks again for your generous support. We hope that the birds arrived safely to their nesting grounds in the southwestern United States, and with your help, we look forwarding to protecting their habitat during the next wintering season.