New bird records for the Serranía de Las Quinchas, Colombia: Inventory update and comments on distributions in an altitudinal gradient

Study Extent

1. La Ye Sector: Vereda La Ye, Municipality of Otanche, Boyacá (05°48′47″N, 074°15′06″W), was characterized as a mountainous site on the eastern slopes of the mountains with elevations from 600 m to 1100 m a.s.l. We carried out the sampling in the surrounding area and on the banks of the Chorro Negro and Los Mártires ravines. Sampling sites included preserved and fragmented forest cover, as well as corn, banana, and cocoa crops, some grasslands, and stubble (Balcázar-Vargas et al. 2000). 2. La Cristalina Sector: La Cristalina, Municipality of Puerto Boyacá, Boyacá (05°49′49″N, 074°18′22″W), with elevations between 260 m and 500 m a.s.l. Anthropogenic interventions in the area are intensive (Balcázar-Vargas et al. 2000), but forest fragments remain that are surrounded by pastureland used for livestock and agricultural crops around the La Cristalina ravines. 3. Puerto Pinzón Sector: Puerto Pinzón is located in the Municipality of Puerto Boyacá, Boyacá (06°03′06″N, 074°16′56″W). This sector was characterized by its historical deforestation and changes in land use for licit and illicit crops. However, it is possible to find preserved parts with forests of secondary vegetation and small native forest parks.

Sampling

For each sector, we established three transects (routes) on the physical edge and inside the vegetative cover, which we defined as gallery forests, high open forests, and intervening areas. We made five field trips, between March and October 2019, including during the annual rainy, dry, and transitional periods (Rangel-Ch. and Aguilar-P. 1995). We made direct observations with binoculars and a camera for each transect and between 5:30 h and 11:00 h and between 15:00 h and 18:00 h during the busiest hours for the birds (Gómez et al. 2008).

Quality Control

The names of the species are updated according to the latest version of the SACC and the names of the authors were followed according to what was proposed by the IOC.

Method steps

1. The taxonomy used in our list is based on work published by Stiles and Bohórquez (2000), Laverde-R. et al. (2005) and de Cuervo et al. (2007), with updates according to taxonomic proposals of the American Ornithological Society (Remsen et al. 2020). We included the threat categories of species in our list, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2020). For each sector, we established three transects (routes) on the physical edge and inside the vegetative cover, which we defined as gallery forests, high open forests, and intervening areas. For field identification, we used the field guides by Hilty and Brown (1986), McMullan et al. (2010), and Ayerbe-Quiñones (2018).

Se visitaron tres sectores en la Serranía de Las Quinchas, ubicadas entre los municipios de Otanche y Puerto Boyacá