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Bird migration is one of the most fascinating life history characteristics of live, wild bird populations. Birds need to have food resources and breeding areas throughout the year; nonetheless, these are not always readily available. During the winter season, for instance, harsh weather conditions (very low temperatures) pose a real problem for several birds in places like Alaska, Canada and the United States of America (USA). These birds have a very hard time finding food under such weather conditions. Therefore, in order to obtain such resources, several bird taxa often decide to migrate in order to find areas with better (warmer) climates and to attain more food resources. Migrating birds can travel incredibly long distances in order to find such rich areas. For example, in our continent (America), migrating birds often travel from North- to Central America and even South America. Because birds cannot fly non-stop, they require areas in which they can rest and obtain food (stopovers), as to replenish some of the energy they use during their travel. However, finding stopovers pose new, harder problems for the travellers, since the areas they use as stopovers are often modified or even destroyed by human activities. Needless is to say that hundreds and even thousands of birds die year after year after failing to find and use stopovers.
The need to describe and understand the dynamics and problems that birds face during their migration from North- to Central America has motivated several professional biologists and amateur enthusiasts to create bird-monitoring programs. One of these programs is the Programa de Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal (Winter survival monitoring program; MoSI in Spanish), which is maintained by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP, USA). MoSI is the result of cooperation efforts between public agencies, private organisations and amateurs from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In order to achieve its goal, participants ring (using standardised methods) and collect data from birds caught in mist nets placed in a wide range of monitoring field stations. Such stations are strategically located in and/or near the wintering areas of migratory birds.
As of today, there are approximately 40 MoSI stations in Mexico. Nonetheless, very few of them are located above 2,500 m.a.s.l. This year, a few members of the Grupo de Ecología de la Conducta (GEC; Medardo Cruz, Juanita Fonseca and Verónica Mendiola) and MSc students (María José Pérez, Vanessa Martínez and Helen Martínez) and one academic from the Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta (Carlos Lara), Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, began the operation of a MoSI station at the La Malinche Field Station, which is in turn located at La Malinche National Park (Tlaxcala, Mexico). This new MoSI station is located at approximately 3,250 m.a.s.l. With this joint effort we try to understand (i) the patterns of bird migration and (ii) how these birds use the La Malinche National Park.
