The first full photograph of an endangered Ochre-fronted Antpitta in the wild was recently taken by American Bird Conservancy Conservation (ABC) Biologist Daniel Lebbin at Peru’s Abra Patricia Bird Reserve. Lebbin photographed a male a short distance from the Owlet ecolodge, within reserve located in northern Peru at an elevation of about 7,000 feet.
Only a few photographs of an Ochre-fronted Antpitta in the hand were previously available along with a partial photo of the underparts of a wild bird (
www.martinreid.com/Misc website/PE10OchrefrontedAntpitta.html).
The four and a half-inch long species was discovered in 1976 and is mostly brown, with heavy black streaks on its pale underparts. It is known from only two localities on isolated ridges of moist montane forest in the east Andes in Amazonas and San Martín, in north Peru. It mainly eats invertebrates.
Abra Patricia is designated an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site because of the presence of both the antpitta and the endangered Long-whiskered Owlet. ABC and its Peruvian partner Associacion Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN, a leading Peruvian conservation organization) established a 6,739-acre reserve and have been given management rights by the Peruvian government on a further 16,561 acres to protect habitat for these and other threatened birds. The reserve continues to expand with the purchase of the strategically-placed “La Cumbre” property in July thanks to support of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. Additionally, the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory’s Tropical Forests Forever Fund is supporting the purchase of an additional tract of land on the western boundary of the reserve, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is supporting the construction of a research laboratory and administration house currently underway.
The Abra Patricia Reserve is just one of several Latin American bird reserves that are featured on the new website Conservation Birding -
www.conservationbirding.org - which encourages tourists to visit these unique places to see the birds of a lifetime, such as the antpitta, while supporting their conservation.
First ever full photograph of Ochre-fronted Antipitta in the wild.
