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Posted by Jim Duquesnel on 18:55:20 09/28/06
The 8th Annual Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival opens at the Marathon Garden Club, at 6:00PM on Friday, September 29. A reception with hors d'oeuvres will be followed by the Festival's keynote speaker, Dr. Ken Meyer of the Avian Research and Conservation Institute. Dr Meyer will present a program on the conservation challenges posed by two birds famously associated with the Florida Keys, the White-crowned Pigeon and the Short-tailed Hawk.
The White-crowned Pigeon is a "keystone species" for the Florida Keys terrestrial ecosystems. Like the "keystone" that supports a masonry archway and all the weight above it, White-crowned Pigeons and the seeds they disperse are integral to the health and diversity of our native hardwood hammocks. This migratory bird, with a distribution limited to southern Florida and the Caribbean Basin, nests colonially on mangrove islands of Florida Bay but commutes to the mainline Keys to feed on the seasonal fruits of hammock trees and shrubs. Beyond Florida, White-crowned Pigeons are heavily hunted for food and sport, nestlings are taken for food, and illegal or unregulated hunting is common. These impacts during the winter are compounded by the loss of habitat here on the breeding range in Florida. Because of these threats to White-crowned Pigeons and the vital role they play in the ecology of the Keys, the species is of critical conservation concern.
Short-tailed hawks are unique birds in many ways. They are the only raptor species limited to Florida, residing here throughout the year. These hawks concentrate at the tip of the Florida peninsula after their autumn migration, so visiting birders know that this species is most easily observed in the Florida Keys. Short-tailed Hawks are one of the reasons for the recent headlines declaring that over $417 million dollars are spent annually in Florida by visitors who come primarily to observe birds. With no more than 200 breeding pairs, however, the U.S. population of the Short-tailed Hawk is vulnerable to extinction. Several factors make Short-tailed Hawks susceptible: extremely small population size and distribution, nest sites in the interior of large tracts of mature forest, the accelerating loss of historic nesting territories and vital habitat, a concentrated winter distribution, a specialized diet, and poor nesting success with unexplained failures occurring mainly in the egg stage. The species has no state or federal listing status and no monitoring program is in place.
White-crowned Pigeons and Short-tailed Hawks face special threats to their continued existence, ranging from impacts beyond our borders to Florida's own burgeoning growth and habitat destruction. The Avian Research and Conservation Institute has studied these two species for several years to describe their basic ecology and habitat needs, to gather demographic data needed for predicting population trends, to track seasonal movements, and to develop monitoring plans that will alert us to sudden dangerous declines. Join us to learn about the intriguing biology and conservation of these fascinating and beautiful Florida birds.
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