Keywords
diversity
Eastern Tropical Pacific
seabirds
seasonality
threatened species.
Costa Rica
diversidas
Pacific Tropical Este
aves marinas
estacionalidad
especies amenazadas.
How to Cite
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.
References
American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU). (1998). Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Ornithologists’ Union.
Ballance, L. T., Pitman, R. L., & Fiedler, P. C. (2006). Oceanographic influences on seabirds and cetaceans of the eastern tropical Pacific: A review. Progress in Oceanography, 69, 360-390.
BirdLife International. (2013). State of the World’s Birds: Indicators for our Changing World. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.
Carboneras, C. (1992). Family Procellariidae (petrels and shearwaters). In J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, & J. Sargatal (Eds.), Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (pp. 216-257). Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Editions.
Chesser, T. R., Banks, R. C., Cicero, C., Dunn, J. L., Kratter, A. W., Lovette, I. J., Navarro-Sigüenza, A. G., Rasmussen, P. C., Remsen, J. V., Jr., Rising, J. D., Stotz, D. F., & Winker, K. (2014). Fifty-fifth supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union check-List of North American birds. Auk, 131, CSi-CSxv. doi: 10.1642/AUK-14-124.
Croxall, J. P. (2012). Seabird conservation status, threats and priority actions: a global assessment. Bird Conservation International, 22, 1-34.
Easley, K., & Montoya, M. (2006). Observaciones ornitológicas en la Isla del Coco, Costa Rica (Mayo 2006). Zeledonia, 10, 31-41.
Fiedler, P. C. (2002). The annual cycle and biological effects of the Costa Rica dome. Deep-Sea Research I, 49, 321-338.
Fiedler, P. C., & Talley, L. D. (2006). Hydrography of the eastern tropical Pacific: a review. Progress in Oceanography, 69, 143-180.
Furness, R. W. (2003). Impacts of fisheries on seabird communities. Scientia Marina, 67(2), 33-45.
Grémillet, D., & Boulinier, T. (2009). Spatial ecology and conservation of seabirds facing global climate change: A review. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 391, 121-137.
Howell, S. N. G. (2012). Petrels, albatrosses, and storm-petrels of North America. New Jersey, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Howell, S. N. G., & Dunn, J. (2007). A Reference Guide to Gulls of the Americas. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Howell, S. N. G., & Webb, S. (1995). The Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Howell, S. N. G., McGrath, T., Hunefeld, W. T., & Feenstra, J. S. (2010). Occurrence and identification of the Leach’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) complex off southern California. North American Birds, 63, 540-549.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). (2013). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Retrieved from http://www.iucnredlist.org
Jehl, J. R., Jr. (1974). The near-shore avifauna of the Middle American west coast. Auk, 91, 681-699.
Jones, H. L., & Komar, O. (2009a). Central America (in The Regional Reports: Spring Migration, March through May 2009). North American Birds, 63, 513-518.
Jones, H. L., & Komar, O. (2009b). Central America (in The Regional Reports: Fall Migration, August through November 2009). North American Birds, 64, 164-168.
Jones, H. L., & Komar, O. (2010). Central America (in The Regional Reports: Fall Migration, August through November 2009). North American Birds, 64, 164-169.
Jones, H. L., & Komar, O. (2011). Central America (in The Regional Reports: Fall Migration, August through November 2010). North American Birds, 65, 174-180.
King, W. B. (Ed.). (1974). Pelagic studies of seabirds in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 158, 1-277.
Loftin, H. (1991). An annual cycle of pelagic birds in the Gulf of Panama. Ornitología Neotropical, 2, 85-94.
Montoya, M. (2003). Aves de la Isla del Coco. Lista de especies. Zeledonia, 7, 29-37.
Montoya, M. (2008). Aves marinas de la Isla del Coco, Costa Rica, y su conservación. Revista de Biología Tropical, 56(Supplement 2), 133-149.
Pitman, R. L. (1986). Atlas of seabird distribution and relative abundance in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. (Report LJ-86-02C). Maryland, USA: National Marine Fisheries Service Administration.
Pitman, R. L., & Balance, L. T. (1992). Parkinson’s Petrel distribution and foraging ecology in the eastern Pacific: aspects of an exclusive feeding relationship with dolphins. Condor, 94, 825-835.
Ridgely, R. S., & Gwynne, J. A. (1992). A Guide to the Birds of Panama: With Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. New Jersey, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sandoval, L., & Sánchez, C. (2013). Lista de aves de Costa Rica: Décima sexta actualización. San José, Costa Rica: Unión de Ornitólogos de Costa Rica.
Scofield, R. P., & Christie, D. (2002). Beach patrol records indicate a substantial decline in sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus) numbers. Notornis, 49, 158-165.
Scott, D., Scofield, P., Hunter, C., & Fletcher, D. (2008). Decline of sooty shearwaters, Puffinus griseus, on The Snares, New Zealand. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 142, 185-196.
Shaffer, S. A., Tremblay, Y., Weimerskirch, H., Scott, D., Thompson, D. R., Sagar, P. M., Moller, H. Taylor, G. A., Foley, D. G., Block, B. A., & Costa, D. P. (2006). Migratory shearwaters integrate oceanic resources across the Pacific Ocean in an endless summer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103, 12799-12802.
Spear, L. B., & Ainley, D. G. (1999a). Migration routes of sooty shearwaters in the Pacific Ocean. Condor, 101, 205-218.
Spear, L. B., & Ainley, D. G. (1999b). Seabirds of the Panama Bight. Waterbirds, 22, 175-198.
Spear, L. B., & Ainley, D. G. (2007). Storm-Petrels of the Eastern Pacific Ocean: species assembly and diversity along marine habitat gradients. Ornithological Monographs, 62, 1-77.
Spear, L. B., Ainley, D. G., Nur, N., & Howell, S. N. G. 1995. Population size and factors affecting at-sea distributions of four endangered procellariids in the tropical Pacific. Condor, 97, 613-638.
Stiles, F. G. (1984). Status and conservation of seabirds in Costa Rican waters. In J. P. Croxall, P. G. H. Evans, & R. W. Schreiber (Eds.), Status and Conservation of the World’s Seabirds (pp. 223-229). Cambridge, UK: ICBP.
Stiles, F. G., & Skutch, A. F. (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, New York, NY: Cornell University Press.
Stiles, F. G., & Smith, S. M. (1977). New information on Costa Rican waterbirds. Condor, 79, 91-97.
Vilchis, L. I., Ballance, L. T., & Fiedler, P. C. (2006). Pelagic habitat of seabirds in the eastern tropical Pacific: Effects of foraging ecology on habitat selection. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 315, 279-292.
Young, B. E., Easley, K., Garrigues, R., Mactavish, B., Murgatroyd, P., & Zook, J. R. (2010). Swallow-tailed gull Creagrus furcatus in Costa Rica. Cotinga, 32, 24-26.
Comments
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2016 Revista de Biología Tropical