The Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata), is an endangered bird species found only in Central America between southeastern Honduras and western Panama (Stiles and Skutch 1989). The male bellbird has beautiful rufous and white plumage, three wattles that hang from its bill, and a remarkable call which can be heard for up to one kilometer in distance. Females are silent and well camouflaged birds that disappear in the foliage.
Bellbirds seemed to be abundant in Costa Rica since they could be heard in all parts of country at some time of the year. After an investigation by Dr. George Powell and colleagues, it was learned that the annual migration of bellbirds includes Monteverde (breeding area), the Pacific coast, Arenal, and southeastern Nicaragua. Therefore, it was the same bellbirds that people were hearing throughout the country, not a large number of bellbirds calling at various locations at the same time.
This finding increased the suspicion that bellbirds were declining in numbers. Dr. Michael Fogden noted the decline of bellbirds in Monterverde using call data which he gathered each April from the 1980’s to the present. In the 1980’s, he estimated 10 to 12 bellbirds calling by the entrance of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. This number declined to 3 to 4 birds in the early 1990’s. Census work since 1997, performed by the Bellbird Conservation Project and guides of the Monteverde area, has confirmed a decline in Monteverde’s bellbird population
Monteverde is not the only area reporting declines of bellbirds. Residents of many areas of the country such as Sarapiqui, Savegre, Cerro de la Muerte, Uvita, and Hacienda Barú, among others, report the disappearance of bellbirds or severe declines

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