Recently, I had an email from my Irish friend JEREMY FLANAGAN, who has lived in Northern Peru for over 25 years, devoting his life to conservation, not only of the land, but of the birds. (See Blog 5/21/2013) While his struggle goes on to make known the importance of conservation, it is better today than when I was with him twelve years ago.
He
has seen the importance of educating young children, helping them to be excited
about their country and nature, but also having a hand in its protection. Jeremy’s
wife, Cristina, is now a big part of his work.
One of his missions is to protect the plantcutter and its Peruvian habitat. Plantcutters are finicky about their diet and are among only a handful of birds known to eat leaves. Along with finches, they form part of an even smaller group of birds that can move their serrated beaks from side to side, not just up and down. I spent over two hours in a hot, dry forest with Jeremy trying to locate this bird- one of the rarest in the world. Our patience paid of!
Jeremy has written a book for children on this amazing bird and the biodiversity of Northern Peru's dry forests. He and Cristina are even planting more native trees in order to save the birds who feed on their seeds.
It is estimated that only 500-1000 Peruvian Plantcutters (a Peruvian endemic) are left alive in the wild, with several other species of native flora and fauna of the Dry Forest threatened in various degrees.
The pkantcutter is a symbolic bird and a biological indicator of the health of the local Dry Forest.
Their habitat is in a narrow altitudinal range (from sea level to 550m) and highly fragmented, from patches of vegetation that follow important geographical features such as "quebradas" (dry riverbeds or gullies/wadis). The last remaining sites keep being reduced by man's destruction.
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