How Was The X National Ornithological Congress Chachapoyas 2016

Photography: Michell León

The birds are definitely an impeccable example of evolution, are the most beautiful living beings on the planet and Peru has 1816 known species of the 9720 known in the world, Amazonas has endemic species, including Loddigesia mirabilis marvellous spatuletail, congress representative icon.

The congress started on 16 and ended on May 21 and was on the conference hall of the Regional Government of Amazonas and the comfortable facilities of the National Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza University of Amazonas (UNTRM), organized by the same university, CORBIDI, NCI, CBP, ACCA, MUSA, UNALM, among others.

Among the presentations the following topics were: "Using evolutionary genomics to connect the genotype and phenotype in birds" (Ph.D. Scott V. Edwards), "Speciation of birds in the Neotropics" (Ph.D. Robb T. Brumfield), "bird watching in Peru - a personal perspective of the history and current situation" (Barry Walker), "Birding: potential demand for Peru" (Manuel Bryce Moncloa), "a new landscape for field ornithology in Peru "(Ph.D. Thomas S. Schulenberg)," Speciation and conformation of the bird community in the Andes "(Ph.D. Ben Winger)," Perspectives on macroevolutionary diversification South American birds "(Ph.D. Santiago Claramunt)," Adjustment height Andean waterfowl mallards "(Ph.D. Kevin McCracken).

Symposia, there were many speakers among whom include Thomas Valqui (CORBIDI), Fernando Angulo (CORBIDI), Gary Graham, Manuel Roncal (UNC), Lisset Palomino (UNSLGI), Enver Ortiz (CORBIDI), Raul Perez (UNP), Willy Ortiz (UNP), among others.

It would be very extensive to mention all the issues, but in a super short can say that birds are the result of a progressive and slow evolution of millions of years since the surviving dinosaurs, through the Archaeopteryx and ending in the countless species known until today. In Peru, the birds ended speciation the influence of climate, temperature, altitude and habitat. Ecological walls were not the only ones that influenced the differentiation of species, as in the cloud forests of the Marañon River, which have the greatest diversity of birds in the world, where many coexisting in small areas and have small elevational ranges but wide high elevation ranges and at the edges of the river where the isolation generated phenotypic differentiation, like the plumage that time was due to genetic divergence within and between genders in about 2 million years; or monotypic identical at both ends, which remained so for a recent settlement or a homogenization effects of gene flow species also exist.

Species adapted to high elevations, such as the Andean ducks, have higher oxygen capacity, increased red blood cell count, increased cardiovascular hypoxic ventilatory response (HCVR) and increased erythropoiesis like humans living on the Andean high elevations compared to those living in Tibet, this implies resistance to cold. All with high affinity and hemoglobin like declines with time and differences in their proteins.

As for the taste of the birds, this is inherited from dinosaurs, a single taste receptor, which can feel taste for meat but not for sweet, like sugar, however, the hummingbird has modified this receptor to sense sweet but not the same way as that of mammals.

All these data were obtained through field studies in different ecological zones of Peru and laboratory where methods such as mitochondrial DNA, genetic sequencing, genetic and protein analysis, spectrophotometry, measurement of species, etc. were applied.

The scientific contribution of study of birds in Peru, helps us to understand the reasons why we have such a rich and varied biodiversity of species.

This diversity allows us to place our country as favorite place for birdwatching. Birdwatching is an economic powerhouse for Peru, many of the benefits of this activity are positioned in the number of species, increased number of tourists, higher income, contributing to conservation and ecotourism, improves quality of life, has a multiplier effect, allowing social inclusion, decentralization, etc.

It has an effective market 7,325 million birdwatchers of between 25 and 70 years old. In Peru, 2 400 million.

Many ornithologists began this activity in Peru as Maria Koepcke who pioneered modern ornithology.

Schulenberg tells us about the birdwatching:

Conservation begins with the species distribution, abundance, movement and changes in geographic areas over long periods of time; therefore each observation is important.

Technology has helped a lot for the development of two-dimensional maps of bird migrations.

Registered websites where birds are ebird.com (birdwatching registration) and neotropicalbirds.cornell.edu (Study and scientific and biological data for each species) they are documented.

The second day of the event coincided with the announcement that the Global Big Day Peru obtained the bichampionship in watching more bird species, obtaining a result of 1242 species seen throughout the national territory, above Brazil, who came in second place, despite having fewer numbers of "checklist" and less birdwatchers than other countries.

The Next Global Big Day will be May 13, 2017

There is another great event called World Birding Rally, started by Manuel Bryce and promoted by PromPeru.

Midweek was destined one Fullday to places like Kuelap and spectacular Gocta Falls.

They were extraordinary days, where there was a lot of learning, participation, and fellowship, and especially birdwatching.

Andigena hypoglauca, Andean Toucan, Photography: Cesar Bollatty.