The first record of birds in Brazil dates back to the year 1500, in letters from Pero Vaz de Caminha to King Dom Manuel of Portugal, where he mentioned furabuchos, parakeets, parrots and pigeons (Pinto 1942).
Do clima e terra do Brasil, written by the Portuguese priest Padre Fernão Cardim, who arrived in 1583, was the first work describing the bird life of the north eastern coast. In 1618, Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão, a Portuguese man living in Pernambuco, described some of the bird species habitats' in Diálogo das grandezas do Brasil, (Pinto 1979). During the Dutch occupation of Brazil's Northeast, naturalists and artists from Prince Maurício de Nassau's court recorded valuable information about neo-tropical fauna. The German naturalist George MarcGrave, who arrived in Brazil in 1636, was particularly important. He made expeditions to Pernambuco, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, publishing his findings on the work Historia rerum naturalium Brasilae (Paiva 1987). In his fifth book, he described 174 species, 149 of them identified (Orem 1990). In 1816, the English naturalist William Swainson arrived in Pernambuco, and went as far as Bahia collecting scientific samples and recording them in an iconography called Birds of Brazil.

The British anatomist William Forbes, who catalogued 116 species, started studies of Pernambucan birds in particular in 1881. The French entomologist Edmond Gounelle registered humming birds in Pernambuco from 1892 to 1893, (Sick 1985). In 1903, Otmar Reiser and Robert put together sample collections from Recife, São Lourenço and Petrolina. The German collector Emil Kaempfer put together a large collection for the American Natural History Museum between 1926 and 1931. In 1933 Professor Theodoro Kadletz, a German academic from the Ginásio Pernambucano published a catalogue of Pernambucan birds. In 1939, Elsie M. B. Naumburg published records of Emil Kaepmpfer's expeditions and collections. In 1940, Olivério Pinto (Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo) published the important contribution Aves de Pernambuco, recording 212 species. In 1946 Herbert Berla came to Pernambuco on behalf of Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro and identified 161 species. John Zimmer and Donald Lamm published their notes on Pernambucan birds in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

The work referred to above was limited to field observation and gathering samples for collections. Tagging with metal rings (ringing) was introduced in Pernambuco at the Estação Ecológica do Tapacurá ( São Lourenço da Mata) by the north American Thomas Gula in 1978. Other ringing programmes have been undertaken by the ornithologists Artur Galileu de Miranda Coelho from the Zoology Department of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE) at the Reserva Biólogica de Saltinho (Rio Formoso) and the Serra dos Cavalos (Caruaru), and by Severino Mendes de Azevedo Juinior at Coroa do Avião in Intamaracá (Azevedo Júnior, 1988).

In 1986, Manoel Toscano de Britto and Gustavo Pacheco created OAP (Observadores de Aves de Pernambuco), being the first amateur bird-watching group in Pernambuco to study bird life in different parts of the state, and popularise bird-watching.

Observadores de Aves de Pernambuco - OAP, is a non-profit making organisation, and has no official links with any political parties, trade unions or government institutions. Its major objectives are to study, discover and catalogue the bird-life in Pernambuco and neighbouring states; to plan support and develop amateur bird-watching and contribute to the better understanding of bird-life and conservation of the habitats that are scientifically and ecologically important.

The importance of birds

Birds are important to man and nature and improve the quality of life in many ways:
They feed on plagues that attack our crops and pasture, keep down the rat, snake and insect populations, pollinate flowers and spread seeds. They are a food source, transmit beauty and inspiration through their colour and song, and make other indirect contributions to nature.

In Brazil, The Day of the Bird is celebrated on 5th October. This special day was introduced on 12 September 1968 by decree number 63.234, and was due to the efforts of Johan Dalgas Frisch, Guilherme Machado Kawall and Wilson Mendonça da Costa Florim, who were, at the time, all directors of Sociedade Ornitológica Bandeirante.

Threats to bird-life
The main threats to Brazilian bird life are:
· Destruction of the habitats
· Commercial and predatory hunting
· Capture and imprisonment of birds
· Killing birds to protect crops
· Ware pollution
· Pesticides
· Nest and breeding site destruction

Brazil has 1.796 bird species. Up to the present moment OAP has identified 520 species. Of these, 21 are threatened with extinction.

TESTIMONY

My contact with OAP (Observadores de Aves de Pernambuco) the Association of Birdwatchers in Pernambuco was in the year of 1998 and that was a privilege to know them. Later, on March 29th , 2000 Mitsuri Watanabe , a consulter from IBAMA came as forest engineer and I had the chance to be with them again. It caused us surprise the way the members of the OAP association ran its enterprise, being a private entity, lacking any financial support. We could observe how difficult it was to work without a head office as well as employees to look after the administrative part, that would not necessarily have to be accomplished by the partners and the informality that characterizes the Association. All these obstacles were not sufficient to stop the carrying out of the commitments held by the entity in Pernambuco and in other states in Brazil.

The Association of birdwatchers has a partnership with RPPN (Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural = Private Natural Heritage Reserves) Maurício Dantas to do a survey of the birds in that area which is in an environmental conservation area. This project, under the coordination of a biologist is in its final phase of execution.

National ornithology would have much to gain if financial associations gave support to this project ( RPPN- Maurício Dantas) as well as other projects that OAP has in process of elaboration and execution. We also observed the seriousness on how the association plans and how it executes the observation tasks, registrations and a systematic classification of the collected material. It was pleasing to testify the supporting spirit of the members and how they face the most arduous aspects of their tasks such as long walks, going up and down the hills, nighttime dangers and sleeping in the forest. It was testified the affectionate way they have worked with the catching of birds and later returning them to their habitats. The ability to work in groups was tested when people from other parts of the country such as Santa Catarina, Brasília, Paraiba and Pernambuco came to the Nature Reserve. The variety of ages was from 9 to 92 years old. The pedagogical enthusiasm that they devoted to the mission they had chosen was contagious. This is a pedagogical enthusiasm as they made the sharing of knowledge into a leisure activity. It is possible that a visitor from the Nature Reserve comes across a little local boy naming birds in Latin. The research on Ornithology is carried out in urban and rural zones, on the highways, and in Units of Protected Natural Reserves. The scientific value of the work OAP has done is of high relevance to the creation of a pedagogical culture which is favorable to sustainable development.

FÁBIO LAFAIETE AND MARIA LEDA DE RESENDE DANTAS
Owners of the RPPN (Ecological Reserve Maurício Dantas)
Recife 18 de Julho de 2001

We know that to keep the balance of the planet means the continuity of life. We are living in the age of globalization. The world nowadays is getting smaller and the communication among people is intensified, facilitating the understanding of the need of the environmental balance. When we see that a group of people take the initiative of action towards maintaining this balance, it makes us think of how important it is to have a reflective consciousness about birds, creatures that have great influence in the service of the evolution of the universe. I am extremely grateful to my friends from OAP for giving my daughter Emília and I the opportunity to know the fantastic world of bird watching.

TÉRCIO OLIVEIRA
Sítio Ecológico Imbaúba
Cabo de Santo Agostinho
24 de Julho de 2001

With the continual damage, that is to say, with the destruction of the planet, it is impossible to see a happy future for our children. If there are not people of their generation like OAP interested in increasing the chances of letting us share the blessed songs of a bird and its wonderful colours, life will no longer exist. That is the reason I give my total support to that entity that not only watches birds, but makes a better future for a nation. I am thankful for their existence and hope that they can continue to convey all the news which is important for us all.

CRIATIVA WEB DESIGN
Criação de sites

OAP has done much research and helped in the preservation of birds, which has been the true priority of the group. They are extremely dedicated and organized and they are not only birdwatchers but great researchers on the subject even with the difficulties they have been facing without any financial support. They do not give up their hard work in raising the awareness of the importance of birds in the world. It is important to mention that all the warnings and protests of scientists and researchers alert about the disappearance of the fauna and flora of the planet. The hands of men continue to destroy everything that Mother Nature took years to create, compromising the slow and difficult work of the preservation of birds. With the environmental education and the continuous work of these researchers who are bird lovers, good times will come and with them the accomplishment of a whole life of dedication. But up to that time, they must continue along their journey and they mustn’t forget to teach the birds the wise words from the Brazilian poet called Chico Buarque: ‘Bico calado, toma cuidado que o homem vem ai,’ ‘While men are coming along, don’t say a word, be careful’.

MARCO ZERO zid
Agência de publicidade OAP

The refined art of watching birds in Brazil is a novelty. A happy novelty among us. People are now starting to have interest in birds and finding the possibility of doing something different. Different from our common sense that stopped us from appreciating precious things such as enjoying birds, but also seeing them in their natural environment. It doesn’t matter if it is far or near. This natural environment has won a new sense for us all. It is important for the birds and for us. It is now part of our lives to find the birds. We want them to be and stay there for a long time. The world now has a different view, it is rich, colorful and infinitely interesting through binoculars. It is obvious that after this true statement I am extremely involved sentimentally with the activity of watching birds and that is true. There is a magical component in the scientific observation of birds that only needs to be abandoned if the researcher wants to. I have never wanted this.

I have special reasons to accept and appreciate the invitation to present this third production of birdwatchers of the State of Pernambuco. Although I have to admit that I am an admirer of the bird watching activity, I am also a worried researcher about the type of information that is being obtained in this field. It is essential that the interpretation and identification of what is being observed is accurate, mainly when it is intended to reveal the facts. That also concerns the authors when registering the ornithology of Pernambuco. That individual matter of sources of consultation for each of the species represents a significant progress of this publication in relationship to the two previous initiatives of the group.

As far as I am concerned, the registration has to be widely developed in meaning. It is necessary to recognize that a good list is the one which translates better the reality, even if it is necessary to decrease the information. It is best to gather a few and good registrations than to gather a large amount of mistaken ones. This is true for a small area, a Unit of Nature Conservation, a city, a state or the entire country. To make the lists better and better is to question the previous registration over and over so that new ones can be added. OAP is on the right path and it is worthy of celebration. Pernambuco is a good example and I hope it serves as an incentive for the execution of similar works in other states. Congratulations for the ones that have taken part in this task.

JOSÉ FERNANDO PACHECO
Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos
Rio de Janeiro, 27 de outubro de 2002

Translated by: Tércio Netto Oliveira / Isobel Netto Oliveira / Chis Kitchen