Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

General characteristics 

The Darin lowlands EBA embraces lowlands and foothills (below c.1,000m) of eastern Panama and northernmost Colombia: in Panama from the canal area east through Coln, Panam and Darin provinces, and in Colombia the Urab lowlands along the Atrato river (west of the West Andes), terminating in the northern Choc just south of the Serrana de Baud. The Darin highlands (EBA 024) is divided altitudinally from this lowland area (see below), and the Choc (EBA 041) is south of but adjacent to it.

The primary vegetation is wet and humid lowland forest, with extensive areas of wetland and swamp forest in the Urab lowlands.

Restricted-range species 

Most of the restricted-range species in this EBA occur in humid forest (or disturbed forest) habitats, primarily below 800m. However, as some birds do occur up to c.1,000m there is some altitudinal overlap with species endemic to the Darin highlands EBA, which mainly occur above 700-800m. Chrysothlypis chrysomelas is the most dramatic example of this overlap, although it is essentially a lowland form (see EBA 024 for examples of highland species regularly found below 1,000m). Many of the birds in this EBA are shared with adjacent areas such as the Central American Pacific and Caribbean slopes (EBAs 017 and 019) and the Nech lowlands (EBA 037). Only one species, Bucco noanamae, is shared with the Choc EBA to the south. Piculus callopterus is essentially confined to the present EBA, although there is an old record of it from the Caribbean slope in Veraguas province (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989).

Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

Threats and conservation 

Forest in Coln and western Darin provinces is disappearing following road-building projects during the 1970s and 1980s (W. J. Adsett in litt. 1993). Logging has been extensive in the swamp forest of the Urab lowlands, the cleared areas then being converted to pasture or banana plantations (L.M.Renjifo in litt. 1993). The Serrana de Baud also faces serious deforestation as a result of road-building programmes and logging activities (Collar et al. 1994). A number of potentially damaging projects have been proposed for the area, such as the connection of the Pan-American highway through Darin (through either Los Katios or Utra National Parks), and the building of an inter-oceanic channel using the Atrato and Truando rivers (L.G. Olarte in litt. 1993, L.M. Renjifo in litt. 1993, W. J. Adsett verbally 1996): both of these projects would have a severe impact on the biodiversity of the area.

Three threatened species occur in the EBA. Xenornis setifrons appears to have specific habitat requirements (Whitney and Rosenberg 1993) and, at least on Cerro Azul-Cerro Jefe (within Chagres National Park), it is being directly threatened by habitat loss (W. J. Adsett verbally 1994). The other two species, Crypturellus kerriae and Psarocolius cassini, are both poorly known, and the Colombian portions of their ranges are under great pressure from road construction, settlement and timber extraction. The widespread Northern Screamer Chauna chavaria (Near Threatened; restricted to the wetlands of northern Colombia and north-west Venezuela) is abundant in Los Katios National Park, which may be a stronghold for it (L.M. Renjifo in litt. 1993).

Eight Key Areas for threatened birds have been identified within this EBA (five in Panama and three in Colombia): all of the Panamanian areas are formally protected (three within Darin National Park, the others in Chagres National Park and the Comarca Kuna Yala Indigenous Reserve), and Ensenada Utra National Park protects a portion of one Colombian Key Area (Wege and Long 1995). In Panama, many areas in the EBA are under Indian (e.g. Kuna) control, and are thus protected conservation areas (e.g. the Atlantic coast forest in Coln province, and Comarca Kuna Yala Indigenous Reserve in San Blas) (IUCN 1992a, W. J. Adsett in litt. 1993). Other protected areas in the EBA include (in Panama) Soberana and Portobelo National Parks, Cangln and Chepigana Forest Reserves, and Alto de Darin Protection Forest, and (in Colombia) Los Katios National Park (IUCN 1992a).

Recommended citation  BirdLife International (2013) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Darién lowlands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013

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