Aves Marinas del Sudeste Bonaerense

FAVERO, M.; BACHMANN, S.; COPELLO, S.; MARIANO-JELICICH, R.; SILVA, M. P.; GHYS, M.; KHATCHIKIAN, C.; MAUCO, L.

Reserva de Biósfera Mar Chiquita: características físicas, biológicas y ecológicas

UNESCO-Ed Martín

Año: 2001; p. 251 - 267

Marine birds of the SE of the Buenos Aire Province. Abstract: With a total biodiversity of about 10,000 species, birds have colonised almost all the habitats of the world. Despite the oceans cover 60% of the globe, only 3% of these species exploit the effectively the seas. Several other groups of birds use intensively the coasts and shorelines, being the oystercatchers, plovers and shorebirds the most conspicuous groups. The low biodiversity of birds observed in the seas is by far countered by the very large biomass provided by this group and the consequent amounts of food consumed. The east and Southeast of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina is characterised by the importance of nonbreeding groups of several seabird species all year around. Neotropic Cormorants, American Oystercatchers, four gull species, five tern species and the Black Skimmers are the main groups included. While some of these birds reproduce in Southern Argentina, others breed in the Northern Hemisphere, both using Mar Chiquita lagoon as refuelling or wintering area, due to the high availability of different food types including intertidal invertebrates and fishes. In this chapter we provide an annotated list of the seabird groups present in Mar Chiquita lagoon and Souteastern Buenos Aires Province, including short reviews of the available data on the breeding and foraging biology of the main species.