The recently discovered Blue-throated Hillstar is already critically endangered

BirdLife has categorized it as critically endangered this year, with only 80-100 adults remaining. Good, that Jocotoco acted already by creating Cerro de Arcos, our newest reserve, in 2020.

This year, we expanded Cerro de Arcos by 342 ha to protect its tiny global range of only 114km².

A new study by Molina and colleagues (Molina et al., 2021) found that Blue-throated Hillstars need 29 days of hatching and 44 days for fledging. This is the longest record for a hummingbird species. This long period is likely tied to the inhospitable high Andean plains with low resource availability. Crucially, the long fledging period exacerbates the vulnerability of an already threatened species.

Please help us to expand Cerro de Arcos Reserve to allow more Blue-throated Hummingbirds to nest in safe places.