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Overview
El Salvador is a small country on the Pacific coast of northern Central America with the highest population density in the Americas. This high population has led to widespread destruction of many natural habitats, with only about 3% of the original forest estimated to still remain intact. Despite this, it still has some excellent birding and many important birding sites.
Although small, the country has great diversity. The country has largely a tropical monsoon climate, with a pronounced wet season between about mid May and Mid November and a dry season the rest of the year. However, local climatic effects caused by prevailing winds coming off the Pacific and rising rapidly after they reach the coast has resulted in the formation of cloud forest on many of the volcanoes that are found in the country and in the highlands bordering Honduras and Guatemala in the north. A number of altidudinal zones are also evident.
Much of the coastline is lined with beaches, with some rocky coastline. Along the coast there are extensive areas of mangrove, that have had relatively little disturbance. Nearly all of the coastal lowlands have been deforested and are open farmland. A few areas of tropical dry forest (e.g. Walter Deininger) and riparian forest (e.g. Nancuchiname) still exist. Further inland lie hills and volcanoes that are largely used for coffee farming. The local method is primarily shade coffee, where trees are left to prevent too much sun from reaching the coffee plants. The shade coffee farms are habitats for some of the most important regional specialties (such as Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge, Bar-winged Oriole and Prevost's Ground Sparrow). Unfarmed areas in the highlands tend to have cloud forest, or, in dryer areas, Pine forest (mainly the north and east of the country). Two of BirdLife International's Endemic Bird Areas are found in the country: The North Central American Highlands and the North Central American Pacific Slope.
El Salvador is not often visited by foreign birders for several reasons: neighbouring Honduras and Guatemala have many more species, largely because they both extend onto the Caribbean slope as well as the Pacific slope; there is a high crime rate, which makes travel difficult and limits access to many potentially good birding sites and because of the limited availability of other tourist attractions such as important Mayan historical sites.
Birds
Notable Species
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Rarities
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Check-list
Birds you can see here include:
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Other Wildlife
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Site Information
History and Use
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Areas of Interest
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Access and Facilities
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Contact Details
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External Links
http://tomjenner.com/mayanbirding/index.html has information on the birds and birding sites in El Salvador.
