Bearded Screech-owl Nest Box Program

A brown morph female Bearded Screech-owl peering out of a nest box in the Yalijux IBA. Photo ©Knut Eisermann.

Birds on the Brink is supporting an ongoing conservation project aimed at helping the Bearded Screech-owl Megascops barbarus in Guatemala. Specifically, our grant will help with the expansion of a nest box program in the Yalijux Important Bird Area (IBA), located in the country’s Atlantic Slope Highlands.

Outside primary cloud forest (seen in the background), the landscape of Guatemala’s Yalijux IBA is used for corn fields, pine plantations, and secondary growth. Naturally, pine-oak forest would grow in this zone. Old-growth trees are nowadays absent because of firewood harvest and agricultural land use, causing a lack of potential nest sites for cavity nesters such as the Bearded Screech-owl. The nest box program provides nest sites for this restricted-range owl and the opportunity to study its little-known natural history.

When it comes to its vulnerability to extinction, the Bearded Screech-owl is classified by BirdLife International as Least Concern. However, because the species has a restricted range (10,000 km2 in Guatemala and neighbouring Mexican state of Chiapas) and due to concerns about the vulnerability of its now much-degraded forest habitat, the project seemed worthy of support. The owl serves as an icon for its threatened environment and the prospect of community engagement was seen as an additional positive outcome of the project.

A brown morph female Bearded Screech-owl peering out of a nest box in the Yalijux IBA. Photo ©Knut Eisermann.

A rufous morph male Bearded Screech-owl in the Yalijux IBA. Observations of individually marked owls with leg rings in the study area provide important data on the unknown demography of this owl species. Photo ©Knut Eisermann.

Through an incentive program local Maya Kekchí farmers are motivated to join the nest box initiative. The photograph shows a farmer with a sufficiently large patch of pine plantation in the Yalijux IBA on his way to install a set of four nest boxes. BIRDS ON THE BRINK's support enables expansion of the nest box program. Photo ©Knut Eisermann.

Setting up a nest box in a pine plantation owned by a local farmer in the Yalijux IBA. Photo ©Knut Eisermann.