Important note about citing this web page. This page, and all specific species pages included here are the exclusive property of the Yanayacu Natural History Research Group. If you wish to cite the project page as a whole, including species pages, please do so as follows: Greeney, H. F., R. C. Dobbs, & P. R. Martin. (2005) Natural History of Ecuador's Mainland Avifauna. http://depts.washington.edu/nhrg/nhema/. (Date you accessed the page)

If you would like to see a list of species for which we have created specific pages for, please see our list of species descriptions. If you would like to read some of our project's publications, please visit our list of publications page.

Natural History of Ecuador's Mainland Avifauna A project of the Yanayacu Natural History Research Group

Overall, this study aims to provide comprehensive accounts of the life history and breeding biology of as many Ecuadorian mainland birds as possible. The idea for this project has developed slowly during the past five years, and was originally focused on birds of the eastern Ecuadorian Andes, centered around the Yanayacu Biological Station. This project has previously been know as Breeding Birds of the Eastern Andes (BBEA) and Breeding and Conservation of East Andean Birds (BCEAB), but past success in other areas of Ecuador has recently prompted us to expand the scope of the project. We hope to further expand the project in the near future, with the goal of producing a book which would summarize and expand current knowledge of Ecuador's avifauna. This project intensively studies all types of birds by using non-intrusive videotaping of nests, measuring of important aspects of breeding biology at nests, and focal observations of birds away from nests. The immediate results of our efforts will be the documentation of previously unknown natural history and breeding biology for Ecuadorian birds that face increasing threats of habitat fragmentation and destruction. These intensive baseline data will be made available to locals, NGO's, and scientists worldwide through short publications and eventually through this web site and through the publication of a book. It is our sincere hope that our studies will serve to attract international conservation money and foster local support for preservation of the many unique and highly threatened habitats found in Ecuador and elsewhere in the world

One phase of NHEMA is the dissemination of information, especially in the form of photographs and video clips, through this website. We are very much in the inital stages of building this portion of our webpage. For now, if you are interested in seeing some of the photographs we have taken of Ecuadorian birds, especially at their nest, please visit our photo gallery. If you are interested in reading some of the publications we have produced concerning Ecuador's avifauna, please visit our list of publications and follow links to the pdf's.