Avifauna of Dinira National Park, Venezuela

This is a preliminary inventory of the avifauna of Dinira National Park (DNP), northeastern of Venezuelan Andes, a region that is poorly known ornithologically. In the field work (30 days), 127 bird species (10 orders, 41 families) were recorded, ca. 9 % of the total birds known to Venezuela. From them, just three corresponding to endemic species (2.4 %) whereas 14 (11.0 %) were migrants. Also, new important range extensions were documented, especially for some birds previously reported in Tachira and Merida states ( Merganetta armata and Dendrocincla tyrannina ). From recorded species 33 are threatened in different levels, but only five of them are protected by Venezuelan laws.


Introduction
In 1988, Venezuelan government created Dinira National Park (DNP) in the Andes of Venezuela, an area that includes part of Lara, Portuguesa, and Trujillo states (Venezuela 1988). The name "Dinira" come from the Caquetio indigenous language and it means "sharp-pointed hills". This Park was created to protect six important watersheds: Tocuyo, Curarigua, Morere, Bocono, Guanare, and Motatan (Peralta 1996), nonetheless this conservation unit was established without local assessment of the biological diversity.
The avian diversity of the Dinira National Park has not been well studied yet. Just Lentino and Esclasans (2005) have reported 94 bird species for DNP without detailed information about it species composition. This Park is one of the 72 important bird's areas (IBA's) in Venezuela (Lentino and Esclasans 2005); however is one of the IBA's with deficient information about Neotropical migratory birds (BirdLife 2006). Also, DNP is located within Venezuelan Monate Center, one of the 33 areas of endemism of South America (Cracraft 1985), and its Paramos could be a hotspot for birds due their isolation from other Paramos of the region.
Here we present the results of a bird's inventory of Dinira National Park which is part of a wildlife study in the area.

Study Site
With 45,328 ha, Dinira National Park is found in the northeastern of the Andes mountain chain of Venezuela. It is located in the Sierra de Barcacoas and Portuguesa, a shared area between Lara, Portuguesa, and Trujillo states ( Figure 1). In general, the geomorphology of the Park is composed by high and long slope mountains with sharp forms. The annual temperature and precipitation range between 6-22 °C and 642-2,100 mm, respectively (Weidmann et al. 2003). Three ecological units are recognized in DNP: (I) Cloudy forest (1,600-3,000 m), a forest type with canopy between 20-30 m height, multi-stratified, with abundant vines and epiphytic; it constitutes the highest limit of Andean forest in Venezuela; this ecological unit is usually sub-divided in three forest types: Pre-montane Evergreen Forest, Montane Semideciduous Forest, and Montane Evergreen Forest, which constitute almost 90 % of the Park vegetation; (II) Bushes (1,600-2,000 m), a shrub formation with < 5 m height monostratified with variable physiognomy, according to the weather conditions; it can be sub-divided in two vegetal formations: Pre-montane Semideciduous Bushes and Montane Evergreen Bushes, covering 4 % of the Park surface; and (III) Paramo (≥ 3,000 m) characterized by the presence of rosette plants (Speletia sp.); in this ecological unit, temperature is usually under 9 °C and cover around 5 % of the mountains.

Discussion
The species richness was increased in 127, which represents 32 new bird records for DNP to the previous 94 reported by Lentino and Esclasans (2005). We are unable to indicate which species are the new records for DNP because Lentino and Esclasans (2005) do not provide a species list in their work.
Migratory birds were represented with only 8 % of the 168 reported in Venezuela (Lentino 2003), this low number of migrant species is influenced because the lowest surveyed locality is 1,650 m and at this elevation the occurrence of migrant birds is low (Terborgh and Faaborg 1980); furthermore the field work was done in dates out of the incidence of migratory birds.
Also, endemic species were represented in low number representing 5 % of the total endemic species in Venezuela (55 species). Sixteen bird species in DNP are considered as "indicator species" in the Northern Andes (Stotz et al. 1996) which is a good indicator of the bird community and habitat conditions.
When comparing with Yacambu National Park (YNP) (Goodwin and Lentino 1992), DNP hold 50 % of the number species presented in Yacambu, the endemics species are similar (four in YNP) and the migrant species in YNP are greater. In other research in the Venezuelan Andes, Jones et al. (2002) found a greater number of species (181) in a lower elevation study area.
This superior species richness in both cases is due to the lower elevation of their study area, previous researches in Neotropical environments (e.g. Verea 2001;Martinez and Rechberguer 2007) indicate a decrease in the birds species when increase the elevation. Also a larger sampling effort and the field work season could influence on the results. More field surveys are necessary to better understand the avifauna of DNP.
During the study, interesting information about the bird distribution of ten species was obtained. These correspond to the Torrent Duck (Merganetta armata) which was previously known only from Táchira and Mérida states, where is a fairly common species (Fjeldså and Krabbe 1990;Hilty 2003). On April 25 a subadult male was collected in a fast flowing river in Buenos Aires; also Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle (Geranoaetus melanoleucus) was an uncommon to fairly common raptor inhabiting Paramo and mountain canyons only in the state of Mérida between 3,300-4,500 m (Fjeldså & Krabbe 1990;Hilty 2003 (Hilty 2003). On April 24 an adult was sighted at 1,900 m along the river in Buenos Aires; Amazon Kingfisher (Chloroceryle amazona) with few record in the state of Táchira and no previous reports in Mérida, is supposed to be in Lara, but not confirmed record exist (Hilty 2003). An adult male was sighted in Paramito on August 17. Channel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus) has been reported in Táchira and Barinas states, also in the northwest of Lara, no previous records in Mérida, Trujillo or the rest of Lara (Hilty 2003). Two adult were observed in the forest of Buenos Aires on April 27; Tyrannine Woodcreeper (Dendrocincla tyrannina) is a poorly known species inhabiting humid and wet montane forests in the state of Táchira (Hilty 2003). On December 7, an adult female was collected in Las Antenas at 2,550 m. This place is located more than 250 km of the closer known locality in Táchira; Yellowbilled Cacique (Amblyocercus holosericeus): An uncommon and resident species of the humid and wet high montane forests in the eastern Andes of Venezuela, this bird has been recorded in Táchira and Mérida states between 1,800 and 2,000 m (Hilty 2003). In DNP, it was recorded in two localities: on April 23 an adult was sighted in Buenos Aires while on December 7 an adult female was collected in Las Antenas at 2,550 m. The habitat in both sites is similar to the previous described by Fjeldså and Krabbe (1990).
The new range distribution presented here constitute the northernmost localities know for five species (Merganetta armata, Dendrocincla tyrannina, Chlorostilbon stenura, Coeligena torquata, and Boissoneaua flavescens) which distribution in the Andes had been reported (Hilty 2003) only in Táchira and Mérida states, Venezuela.