Learn about the conditions our migrant birds find overwintering in Costa Rica, joined by other Central American migrant and resident birds. How is the region changing and what pressures do they face. How is Costa Rica, long steeped in commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, coping. Debra Hamilton, research affiliate of the the renowned Monteverde Institute, will share her work and research. She is in the heart of it, working with a team of committed naturalists to reforest landscapes, plant native trees on agricultural land, and to track the migrants at bird banding stations to test the impact of the changing habitat.
Debra Hamilton is research affiliate at the Monteverde Institute and president of the Costa Rica Conservation Foundation. She studies migratory and tropical bird conservation. Deb has been integral to tropical conservation since the 1990’s. She studied the use of agricultural windbreaks as micro-corridors for forest dwelling birds, avian community changes in relation to climate change, and started the MoSI (overwintering survival of neotropical migratory birds) station in Monteverde. She was a founding member of the Fundacion Conservacionista Costarricense, a foundation with its mission to protect and restore forest habitat on Costa Rica’s Pacific slope to aid the recovery of the Three-wattled Bellbird (Procniastricarunculatus). This program is now jointly run with the Monteverde Institute, where Deb was the Executive Director for over eight years. Her publications include articles on vocalizations, habitat use, and frugivory patterns of bellbirds, as well as tropical forest restoration topics.
