Avifauna in fragments of Cloudy Mountain Forest and secondary vegetation in the municipality of Huatusco, Veracruz

The Cloud Forest (CF) in central Veracruz, Me-xico, represents a landscape that has been altered by anthropic activities. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the evolutionary and adaptive potential of the birds sheltered in the site, which face a landscape with a hetero-geneous gradient. The objective of the study was to describe the diversity of birds in frag-ments of CF and secondary vegetation (VS), in the property "Finca La Pastoria", Huatusco, Veracruz. The species and number of indivi-duals in 14 bird watching sites were iden-tified, with the sampling method based on counting points with a fixed radius of 30 m. 100 species from 33 families and 15 orders were recorded. In the CF, 916 individuals were identified, corresponding to 89 species, and in VS 331 individuals of 54 species, finding significant differences in bird diversity bet-ween sampling coverages. The records of Den-drortyx barbatus, Leptotila verreauxi and Vi-reo griseus stand out for being endemic and classified as endangered and threatened, res-pectively. Furthermore, Pionus senilis, a threa-tened species, as well as Falco peregrinus, Mi-crastur semitorquatus, Passerina ciris, Psaroco-lius montezuma, Myadestes occidentalis and Amazona albifrons, subject to special protec-tion, were also recorded. This study provides information on how the birds make differential use of two vegetation covers, which can be used to generate sustainable strategies for forest ma-nagement and conservation.