Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

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Observation frequency and seasonality of marine birds off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica
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Keywords

Costa Rica
diversity
Eastern Tropical Pacific
seabirds
seasonality
threatened species.
Costa Rica
diversidas
Pacific Tropical Este
aves marinas
estacionalidad
especies amenazadas.

How to Cite

Young, B. E. Y., & Zook, J. R. (2016). Observation frequency and seasonality of marine birds off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Revista De Biología Tropical, 64(S1), 235–248. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v64i1.23453

Abstract

Although the Eastern Tropical Pacific is well known for its diverse fauna, the seabirds occurring off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast have received little scientific attention. With seabirds now the fastest declining avian group, a better understanding of seabird diversity and abundance in this region is urgently needed. We report on observations of Costa Rica’s Pacific seabirds made during 19 days of observations on 11 offshore trips from 2006-2010. We provide, for the first time, spatially and seasonally explicit information on the distribution of 41 species of seabirds (nine families). Species diversity is higher during the dry-wet season (36 species) and wet-dry season transitions (36 species) than during the dry season (19 species). The fauna included three threatened species (Pterodroma phaeopygia, Procellaria parkinsoni, and Puffinus creatopus) and two near-threatened species (Psueudobulweria rostrata and Thalasseus elegans), highlighting the importance of Costa Rican waters for the conservation of seabirds.

 
https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v64i1.23453
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