Umbrellabird
Conservation
Action
Network
Who is UCAN
UCAN was created and is run by passionate researchers, biologists and naturalists dedicated to the conservation and protection of Cephalopterus glabricollis (Bare-necked Umbrellabird), a passerine of the Cotingidae family.
We have created this website focusing only on the Bare-necked Umbrellabird (Cephalopterus glabricollis), hoping to bring awareness to its dire need for protection as well as offer an informative site to share with the general public what we have learned to date through our extensive observations and research. Next to nothing has been published or confirmed regarding female nesting and brooding behaviors or chick behavior and development. Our goal is to share our knowledge with all those interested through open source updates as we collect new data far into the future.
How UCAN came to be
In 2008, a female umbrellabird was observed constructing a nest in a small private reserve located near Monteverde, a mountainous region located in the northern half of Costa Rica. Realizing very little had been previously recorded regarding the female and her nesting and brooding habits, a volunteer research team was created to collect data and document this process to better understand the conservation needs of this secretive and declining species. From these first years of study, UCAN was born.
For years now, UCAN staff and volunteers have been conducting an intensive, ongoing behavioral study to better understand the threats and needs of this increasingly rare and charismatic species. Our multi-year ethological study using high definition photo, video and audio recordings, combined with the deployment of satellite transmitters, color bands and over 2000 hours of “in the field” observations, has enabled us to gain a greater understanding of how best to protect the Bare-necked Umbrellabird for future generations. Our biggest success has been the fact that UCAN has observed several active nesting sites with nearly all of the data collected being new to science.
For over 100 years detailed observations had been made regarding the behaviors of the charismatic male umbrellabird, but to this day little is known about the elusive female. Deeper investigations by UCAN led us to discover no one had thoroughly documented the brooding, incubation and rearing of young umbrellabirds to adulthood. To our knowledge, only one nest had been described in 1988 (Fogden & Fogden), with the single chick being predated shortly after hatching.
Since the discovery of our first nest, various levels of study and observations of both male and female umbrellabirds began. From 2016, we focused all our research efforts into better understanding the conservation needs of Cephalopterus glabricollis. Meticulous observations spanning many hundreds of hours has enabled UCAN to document and better understand the process of lekking, mating, nest building, feeding and the raising of young umbrellabirds. In the process, we also learned a great deal about how best to study and protect the birds (and feed the millions of mosquitoes that took delight in our presence). Since nearly all the data gathered regarding nesting, brooding and fledging of the young was new to science, we doubled our efforts to document every detail with the desire of sharing this information with others. At UCAN we firmly believe and support open source data sharing and citizen science initiatives. We encourage anyone who may be interested in research, conservation of endangered species and all of you bird enthusiasts curious about this secretive umbrellabird to contact us for more information on how you may help us into bringing the umbrellabirds of Costa Rica back from the edge of extinction.
To protect endangered lands, streams and species takes a massive effort, both physically and monetarily. In order to assist us in our ongoing research and protection of this species, it is our hope that through this website and other platforms, we may enlighten and perhaps stimulate others to support us in protecting this mysterious, handsome and sometimes comical bird before it is too late.
