After the Gold Rush - an update on recent fieldwork

I would like to thank Birds on the Brink again for the generous grant of £1,000 towards my recent field trip to Guyana.

Sean in the field, studying kingfishers. On the left, Amazon Kingfisher and on the right, American Pygmy Kingfisher. Photographs © Sean Glynn

I have recently returned from this trip and would like to share with Birds on the Brink supporters some images and a short update about the work that was carried out. 

Black-throated Ant-shrike (left) and Blue Dacnis (right). Photographs © Sean Glynn

During the trip we were able to visit a total of 13 sites, 10 mines and 3 control sites in the mining areas of Karrau, Saxicalli and Cuyuni-Mazaruni. Over the three-month period we travelled to some remote mining areas of Guyana to collect data on bird communities within the mining landscape and adjacent forest. At each sampling site we had to build a temporary camp site to work from and sampled birds for 4 days at each site. 

A total of 1144 birds were captured and recorded across the 13 sites visited. The most common bird captured at all mine sites was Silver-beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo) a species that is common in edge-habitats throughout its range.  Photograph © Sean Glynn 

This data aims to understand the bird communities within the mining areas of Guyana in order to understand the impacts of gold mining and the responses after these sites are abandoned.

The effects on gold mining on habitat for White-capped Manakin - female (left) and male (right). Photographs © Sean Glynn

Initial results suggest that the mining activities change the surrounding bird communities to ones which would generally be found at forest edges. Even after a 20-year period of abandonment the bird communities are still very similar to those which have had less time to recover due to the lack of large tree regrowth within the mining areas. 

Sean examining an Amazon Kingfisher and a Chestnut-rumped Woodcreeper (right). Photographs © Sean Glynn

In the following months I will be analysing the data and results which I will share with Birds on the Brink once they have been completed. This will then be submitted for peer reviewed publication once the final paper has been completed.