Developing ageing guides to examine demography of high-elevation andean birds

As part of an ongoing project studying high-elevation birds in the Andes of northern Peru, we are developing species-specific guides to age birds using molt limits and skulling. Understanding age structure is an important tool for demography, contributing to a better understanding of population dynamics and conservation of tropical birds. We are summarizing data and photos from >3,000 birds captured in mist-nets to create one-page photographic guides for the field. Each guide includes information on molt, skull ossification, breeding characteristics, and morphology. We suggest that developing one-page printable summaries which can be easily modified and translated, shared digitally, and printed for the field provides a useful approach to build portable compendiums that are region and habitat specific given the incredible diversity of tropical birds. Ageing criteria that we are developing will be used to help understand how anthropogenic changes such as climate and fragmentation may affect populations in unique, and potentially threatened, tropical montane systems.