Sergio A. Cabrera-Cruz

Institute of Ecology INECOL | INECOL · USPAE

Flying birds have been documented to respond in different ways to the presence of wind farms. Such responses are species‐ and site‐specific, with wind farm design playing an important role. Between 2009 and 2014, the length of rows of wind turbines within our study area increased from 3·4 km to ∼7·5 km, and the total area occupied by wind farms inc...

Excessive or misdirected artificial light at night (ALAN) produces light pollution that influences several aspects of the biology and ecology of birds, including disruption of circadian rhythms and disorientation during flight. Many migrating birds traverse large expanses of land twice every year at night when ALAN illuminates the sky. Considering...

Urban areas affect terrestrial ecological processes and local weather, but we know little about their effect on aerial ecological processes. Here, we identify urban from non‐urban areas based on the intensity of artificial light at night (ALAN) in the landscape, and, along with weather covariates, evaluate the effect of urbanization on flight altit...

Three major flyways of the Nearctic – Neotropical bird migration system converge at the coastal plains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Approximately one million vultures and raptors traverse the area during the autumn migration season, and more than 60 species of nocturnally migrating birds have been recorded there. Furthermore, more than 60...

The distributions of birds during migratory stopovers are influenced by a hierarchy of factors. For example, in temperate regions, migrants are concentrated near areas of bright artificial light at night (ALAN) and also the coastlines of large water bodies at broad spatial scales. However, less is known about what drives broad-scale stopover distri...

Besides direct mortality, wind farms also affect aerial fauna by modifying their communities, reducing species diversity and richness through disturbance. During three consecutive years, we used mist nets and acoustic recorders, and conducted carcass searches, to characterize the assemblage of bat species and to estimate bat mortality at two nearby...

Birds must contend with an array of anthropogenic threats during their migratory journeys. Many migrants are killed due to encounters with artificial light, introduced species, pollutants, and other anthropogenic hazards, while survivors of these encounters can suffer longer-lasting negative effects. The nonlethal effects of anthropogenic threats o...

A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special feature, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge, and views from the Global North, while largely omitting...

As wind energy rapidly expands worldwide, information to minimize impacts of this development on biodiversity is urgently needed. Here we demonstrate how data collected by weather radar networks can inform placement and operation of wind facilities to reduce collisions and minimize habitat‐related impacts on nocturnally migrating birds. We found ov...

A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special dossier, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge, and views from the Global North, while largely omitting...

Artificial light at night (ALAN) affects the flight behavior of night-migrating birds at tall or upward-pointed lighting installations. We hypothesized that common low-rise lights pointing downwards also affect the movement of nocturnal migrants. We predicted that birds in flight will react close to low-rise lights, and be attracted and grounded ne...

Migratory animals are affected by various factors during their journeys, and the study of animal movement by radars has been instrumental in revealing key influences of the environment on flying migrants. Radars enable the simultaneous tracking of many individuals of almost all sizes within the radar range during day and night, and under low visibi...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the narrowest landmass between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. It is known as an important stopover site and migration corridor for Nearctic-Neotropical migratory birds. We characterized nocturnal bird migration along the Pacific side of the isthmus with marine radar, and identified species with diurnal point...

The spatial extent and intensity of artificial light at night (ALAN) has increased worldwide through the growth of urban environments. There is evidence that nocturnally migrating birds are attracted to ALAN, and there is evidence that nocturnally migrating bird populations are more likely to occur in urban areas during migration, especially in the...

We present the first study of the spatial and temporal dynamics of raptors and large soaring birds from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Using systematic migration counts from multiple localities in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, as well as observations of their flight trajectories during eight consecutive years (2007–2014), we descr...

Although many tropical countries have functional wind farms, most of the information on their impact on bat populations has come from temperate zones. Our study is based on a 5-year study (2009–2013) of bat captures using mist nets, acoustic recordings, and carcass searches at a wind farm in tropical southern Mexico. We investigated the composition...

El mergo cresta blanca (Lophodytes cucullatus) es una especie de la familia Anatidae restringida a Norteamérica. La distribución invernal reconocida en México es una franja territorial de aproximadamente 50 km al sur de la frontera con EUA, en los estados de Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León y Tamaulipas, siendo considerada poco común o...

The Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is a bird species belonging to the family Anatidae, restricted to North America; its recognized winter range in Mexico includes a strip of land c. 50 km south of the US-Mexico border, in the states of Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, being considered as vagrant in the rest of...

First record of Eumops nanus (Chiroptera: Molossidae) in Oaxaca, Mexico. We report the first record of Eumops nanus for the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. This finding represents an extension on the distribution area for this species in Mexico. It is the first record of the Eumops genus for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, increasing to 9 the numb...

We report the first record of Eumops nanus for the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. This finding represents an extension on the distribution area for this species in Mexico. It is the first record of the Eumops genus for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, increasing to 9 the number of Molossidae species in this region; and it is the second record in t...

The number of wind farms operating in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico, has rapidly increased in recent years; yet, this region serves as a major migration route for various soaring birds, including Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) and Swainson's Hawks (Buteo swainsoni). We analyzed the flight trajectories of soaring migrant birds passin...

Marine radar is a tool widely used in the study of bird migration, but in most cases it cannot identify detected objects to species. For this reason airspeed is used as one of the main criteria to separate birdlike from insectlike targets, but this criterion has not been tested outside the temperate regions where it was developed. We used a theoret...

Millions of Nearctic-Neotropical migrant birds fly over Mexico during their migratory journeys to their wintering grounds, creating high concentrations of migrating birds in different regions of the coun-try. The Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is known as an important stopover site and corridor for birds migrating to Central and South...