The world of birds is a breathtaking spectrum of color, behavior, and adaptation found in every corner of the planet. Flightless giants share the same air with absurdly tiny hovering jewels; some bird species span continents, while others inhabit only a single slope of a remote Andean ridge. The Tropical Andes is the most biodiverse mountain range on Earth where rarity is the rule, not the exception. Endemic species, those found nowhere else in the world, are scattered throughout the high valleys and misty forests of this region. But many are teetering on the brink.
The Tropical Andes is home to many rare and range-restricted birds that require bespoke conservation efforts, and a new photo book by Owen and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) President Mike Parr, published on July 8th, is helping protect them. The pair of friends have spent years documenting these birds, and Birds of the Tropical Andes is not only a celebration of the biodiversity found there, but also a call to action. Many of the birds pictured within its pages are critically endangered, threatened by deforestation, climate change, and human encroachment on their fragile habitats.
The Dusky Starfrontlet, for example, is a hummingbird once thought extinct, rediscovered at the Páramo de Frontino and Farallones de Citará Colombia in 2004 in confined patches of cloud forest.
Also known as Lulu’s Tody-Flycatcher. Johnson’s Tody-Flycatcher is one of the Tropical Andes’ most striking and range-restricted endemics, found only in a narrow band of cloud forest in northern Peru. This tiny, bright yellow bird with a soft cinnamon cap and gray collar, is dependent on humid, fragmented forest, which makes it highly sensitive to habitat loss. With such a limited range, even small-scale deforestation poses a major threat. Protecting species like this is central to preserving what makes the Andes one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots.
The Santa Marta Brushfinch, with its simple yet striking black head, white ear, yellow belly, and gray back, is confined to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This highland endemic thrives in humid montane forests and adjacent shrublands, often appearing at forest edges or in secondary growth. Its restricted range and habitat specificity make it a key flagship species for conservation efforts in this uniquely rich and imperiled ecosystem.
The black-chinned mountain tanager is endemic to the Chocó region of western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador, an area known as a biodiversity hotspot and positively brimming with high levels of endemism. These birds are currently considered of Least Concern by the IUCN, but their reliance on increasingly fragmented cloud forest habitats means ongoing conservation efforts are essential to ensure their populations remain stable amid growing environmental pressures.
For each of these birds, ABC has played a critical role in survival. Working with local partners, the organization has helped establish private reserves, restore degraded habitat, and train local conservationists to monitor populations. Protecting birds like these means protecting an entire micro-ecosystem, including the trees that the birds use in breeding season, the insects, fruit, and nectar they eat, and the people who live nearby.
Owen’s photography brings these elusive species into sharp focus. His images offer more than beauty: they offer visibility. The guiding principle “People can’t protect what they don’t know exists” is every conservationist’s well-known mantra, and as Mike Parr often emphasizes, raising awareness is the first step toward protection. This book is about showing the world just how extraordinary yet vulnerable these birds are.
The Andes’ endemic birds are often highly specialized, adapted to narrow ecological niches. That makes them incredibly valuable from a scientific standpoint but incredibly vulnerable when their habitat disappears. With the Andes warming faster than the global average, montane species face what ecologists call an “escalator to extinction”: their range moves uphill, but the mountain eventually runs out.
In this context, while Birds of the Tropical Andes certainly presents as a portfolio, it’s at heart a conservation fundraiser. All royalties are being donated to support ABC’s efforts to protect this extremely vital habitat, fund ever more necessary research, and empower local communities through conservation-based livelihoods and long-term stewardship of their natural heritage.
Each image in the book is a window into a world few people will ever visit, but through Owen’s lens and Mike’s, and other contributors’ words, and ultimately ABC’s decades of work, these rare endemic birds have a fighting chance.
