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Sierra Foothills Audubon Society’s October Meeting
What: Natural History of Birds in Ecuador
Who: Rudy Gelis
Where: Community Room, Nevada County Library, Maidu Avenue, Nevada City
When: October 2nd, 7:30 PM
The talk provides a brief introduction to what birds do in Ecuador, from Pacific Choco rainforest to the Pacific deserts, from the Andes and their respective high mountain landscapes and cloud forests, to the Amazon Basin. The talk is based around high quality bird photos, plus anecdotal stories from several years of leading bird and natural history tours and studying bird behavior in Ecuador and Peru, briefly touching on natural history topics such as mixed species flocking, endangered and endemic species, nesting and foraging behavior, and geographical-distribution.
Ecuador is about the size of Colorado yet nearly 1600 species of birds have been recorded there. Rudy will discuss how he goes about exploring and studying this diversity with a wonderful collection of extraordinary photographs. Many of these photos are taken from his book, “Plumas: Birds in Ecuador” co-authored with Murray Cooper.
Rudy Gelis began his career in ornithology as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow in 1997. A member of the Yanayacu Natural History Research Group in Ecuador, he has studied the nests and breeding behavior of Long-wattled Umbrellabird, Red-winged Wood-Rail, Fiery-throated Fruiteater, five species of antpitta, Masked and Bluish Flowerpiercers, Barred Hawk, and many more birds. He leads birding and natural history tours throughout much of Ecuador and Peru, instructs university-level natural history courses in Ecuador and frequently offers ecotourism courses and professional workshops for guides and park guards in Latin America.
