Data Zone
Country/territory: Panama
IBA criteria met: A1, A2, A3 (2003)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here
Area: 400 hectares (4.00 km2)
Site description (2003 baseline)
Escudo de Veraguas is a small (400 ha) island located 17.6 km off the coast of the Valiente Peninsula, approximately 4 km long by 1.5 km wide. Access for much of the year is difficult due to sea conditions.
Key biodiversity
The Escudo Hummingbird (Wetmore 1968) is restricted to the island. Of the nine resident land birds, three are represented by endemic subspecies. Three-wattled Bellbird apparently occurs regularly on the island. These are most likely post-breeding dispersers from the highlands, but breeding is not out of the question. Uniform Crake is abundant on the island. Brown Boobies nest on islets off the western side, one of only three breeding sites on the Caribbean side of Panama (Wetmore 1959, Handley 1993).
Non-bird biodiversity: There are three other species of endemic vertebrates: Escudo Fruit-eating Bat Artibeus incomitatus, Pygmy Sloth Bradypus pygmaeus, and the salamander Oedipina maritima. There is also an endemic supspecies of Armored Rat (Hoplomys). The frog Eleutherodactylus rugulosus also occurs.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Isla Escudo de Veraguas (Escudo de Veraguas Island IBA) (Panama). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/isla-escudo-de-veraguas-(escudo-de-veraguas-island-iba)-iba-panama on 23/12/2024.