FEBRERO 2020
Documenting the nesting biology of a secretive Neotropical bird Two days after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho in 2015, I was on a plane heading south from rural northern Idaho to the Colombian cloud forest. There, I worked with Dr. Gustavo Londoño and his incredible colleagues at the Zygia Research Station to document the ecology and breeding biology of Neotropical birds in the Andes. Each day was an adventure. I woke up with the sunrise and spent the day hiking to search for nesting birds. Luckily for my colleagues and I, not all birds nest high in the canopy. Nope—some will nest in arms reach. Birds can nest in the crooks of trees, inside decaying stumps, on the undersides of fern fronds, or elsewhere. For example, I found a nest of the Black-throated Tody-tyrant ( Hemitriccus granadensis ) in a low-hanging moss ball next to an underused trail. Surprisingly, there was scarce information about this species’ breeding biology an...