Tilomar Important Bird Area

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Asan Foun freshwater lagoon, Tilomar Asan Foun freshwater lagoon, Tilomar, Covalima, Timor-Leste May 2005, (the palm is Sago Palm Metroxylon sagu, reedbeds, and probably an undescribed Casuarina sp in background).jpg
Asan Foun freshwater lagoon, Tilomar

The Tilomar Important Bird Area, also known as Tilomar Forest, is a tract of mainly forested land in East Timor, a country occupying the eastern end of the island of Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Wallacea.

East Timor Country in Maritime Southeast Asia

East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island surrounded by Indonesian West Timor. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is about 15,410 km2.

Timor island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also known as West Timor, constitutes part of the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Within West Timor lies an exclave of East Timor called Oecusse District. The island covers an area of 30,777 square kilometres. The name is a variant of timur, Malay for "east"; it is so called because it lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Mainland Australia is less than 500 km away, separated by the mentioned Timor Sea.

Lesser Sunda Islands group of islands in the southern Maritime Southeast Asia

The Lesser Sunda Islands are a group of islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up the Sunda Islands. The islands are part of a volcanic arc, the Sunda Arc, formed by subduction along the Sunda Trench in the Java Sea.

Contents

Description

The IBA comprises some 227 km2 of forests and wetlands in Tilomar Subdistrict, Cova Lima District, some 100 km south-west of the national capital, Dili, near the southern Timor Sea coast of the island not far from the border with Indonesia.

Wetland A land area that is permanently or seasonally saturated with water

A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is inundated by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil. Wetlands play a number of functions, including water purification, water storage, processing of carbon and other nutrients, stabilization of shorelines, and support of plants and animals. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Whether any individual wetland performs these functions, and the degree to which it performs them, depends on characteristics of that wetland and the lands and waters near it. Methods for rapidly assessing these functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed in many regions and have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions and the ecosystem services some wetlands provide.

Dili City in East Timor

Dili, also known as “City of Peace”, is the capital, largest city, chief port, and commercial centre of East Timor (Timor-Leste). Dili is part of a free trade zone, the Timor Leste–Indonesia–Australia Growth Triangle (TIA-GT).

It ranges in elevation from sea level up to about 1000 m. The principal natural habitat is tropical deciduous forest on limestone hills, with perennial springs at the foot of the hills supporting patches of tropical evergreen forest.

Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests biome

The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons which last several months and vary with geographic location. These seasonal droughts have great impact on all living things in the forest.

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolostone, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In fact, in old USGS publications, dolostone was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolostones or magnesium-rich limestones.

A perennial stream or perennial river is a stream or river (channel) that has continuous flow in parts of its stream bed all year round during years of normal rainfall. "Perennial" streams are contrasted with "intermittent" streams which normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year, and with "ephemeral" channels that flow only for hours or days following rainfall. During unusually dry years, a normally perennial stream may cease flowing, becoming intermittent for days, weeks, or months depending on severity of the drought. The boundaries between perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral channels are not defined, and subject to a variety of identification methods adopted by local governments, academics, and others with a need to classify stream-flow permanence.

Although most of the coastal forests have been cleared for agriculture, the IBA includes a small freshwater lagoon as well as saline coastal lagoons. [1]

Deforestation removal of forest and conversion of the land to non-forest use

Deforestation, clearance, or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land which is then converted to a non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests.

Lagoon A shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs

A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.

Birds

The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of bar-necked cuckoo-doves, black cuckoo-doves, Wetar ground doves, pink-headed imperial pigeons, yellow-crested cockatoos, jonquil parrots, cinnamon-banded kingfishers, streak-breasted honeyeaters, Timor friarbirds, black-breasted myzomelas, plain gerygones, fawn-breasted whistlers, green figbirds, olive-brown orioles, Timor stubtails, buff-banded thicketbirds, Timor leaf warblers, spot-breasted heleias, orange-sided thrushes, white-bellied bush chats, black-banded flycatchers, Timor blue flycatchers, blue-cheeked flowerpeckers, flame-breasted sunbirds, tricoloured parrotfinches and Timor sparrows. [1]

BirdLife International is a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats, and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. It is the world's largest partnership of conservation organisations, with over 120 partner organisations.

Important Bird Area area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of birds populations

An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.

The bar-necked cuckoo-dove, also called the duskycuckoo-dove was split into the following species in 2016. The name "bar-necked cuckoo-dove" remains valid when used to describe the Macropygia magna species complex as all of its members have barred necks and breasts.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Tilomar". Important Bird Areas factsheet. BirdLife International. 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-27.

Coordinates: 09°20′00″S125°12′00″E / 9.33333°S 125.20000°E / -9.33333; 125.20000

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

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