New information on wintering birds of northwestern Chihuahua

AMERICAN BIRDS The desert grasslands of northern Chihuahua, Mexico, and the southwestern United States are important breeding, migration, and wintering habitats for many grassland and shrubland bird species of high conservation interest in the United States (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2002). The area around Janos, in northern Chihuahua, contains a large portion of the remaining desert grasslands important for the conservation of biodiversity in North America (Ceballos 1999, List et al. 2000, Manzano-Fischer et al. 2000). Conservation interest has focused on the large tracts of relatively intact semidesert grasslands that occur here, including the largest complex of black-tailed prairie-dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) towns left in North America (Ceballos et al. 1993). These concerns led to the initiation in 1997 of the Ejido San Pedro Christmas Bird Count (ESPC), organized cooperatively by Mexican and American biologists. The ESPC encompasses the foothills of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental and adjacent Chihuahuan Desert lowlands to the east, and is centered in a mid-elevation valley where the Chihuahuan Desert intergrades west into the Sierra Madre Occidental. Results from the ESPC have contributed to our knowledge of the area’s birds and have provided valuable information for the conservation of the area. Here, we summarize ESPC results from 1997 through 2003, with an emphasis on bird species composition, relative abundance, and range extensions. The conservation importance of the ESPC region continues to draw participants to this remote count area. Introduction