Assessment of the American Flamingo distribution, trends, and important breeding areas

Abstract

The American Flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber, is a charismatic bird distributed throughout the Caribbean, North and South America. Its wide distribution, the complexity of international monitoring due to its capacity for long-distance flying, and a focus mostly on local populations, make it difficult to understand the dynamics between sites. Here, we took advantage of the citizen eBird science project to present a global perspective on the distribution of the American Flamingo, and identify the potentially most important countries for breeding. We obtained 16,930 records for the Americas from the 1960s until October 2018, of which 9,283 could be used for our objectives. The eBird database indicated a considerable increase in the total number of records over the last decade (2010s), probably reflecting an increase in tourism facilities, research investment, technological advancement, interest in conservation, and the worldwide availability of eBird. We also observed a range extension in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States and a significant recolonization in the Florida Peninsula. The apparent range extension to the South is more likely to be linked to biases in the data; for example, in any given country the number of records might reflect either reporting efforts or actual numbers. eBird data confirmed that six countries host the main breeding colonies (Bahamas, Bonaire, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela). We suggest three additional countries as potential breeding areas for the species (Colombia, Curaçao, Turks and Caicos Islands) for which more field observations are necessary to support this possibility. This global appraisal of the distribution of the American Flamingo using citizen science data provides valuable information for national and international management and conservation programs such as the need to verify the species breeding status in areas where it appears to be expanding its distribution.

Analysing citizen science data to address the demographic expansion of the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) in southern Spain

“…In particular, we expected predation on eggs or chicks of sensitive breeding shorebirds species in the area such as the Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus, the Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus and the Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta, on which predation has been previously documented in areas where Magpies are abundant (Rocha et al 2016;Kubelka et al 2019). However, after analysing the pellets during breeding and wintering season, we found no traces of these bird species and only traces of some passerines, but in very low quantities only in summer, which could suggest some predation of the nests of birds (Tatner 1983). The presence of mammal remains is observed exclusively during the winter season.…”

“…The presence of mammal remains is observed exclusively during the winter season. While we did not find a clear explanation, it might be because insects, their primary food source, are less available during this time, leading them to search for alternative food (Tatner 1983). Indeed, the diet of the Magpie in the study area is based mainly on insects, snails and seeds (> 86%), as documented in other urban areas of the Iberian Peninsula (Díaz-Ruiz et al 2015).…”

“…eBird benefits from a robust review process, focused on ensuring correct locations and species identification (Johnston et al 2021). In recent years, eBird data has been used to assess changes in the distribution of bird species with revealing results such as the expansion or recolonization of sensitive species (Torres-Cristiani et al 2020) or to monitor the effect of climate change on migratory bird populations (Masto et al 2022). Furthermore, concerning the inherent citizen participation in urban settings, eBird has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness, particularly in studies linked on bird populations within urban areas (Callaghan et al 2020;Hernández-Brito et al 2022).…”