New Project, The Tufted Jay

Jeepney Projects Worldwide is excited to announce our partnership with the Reserva Chara Pinta (Tufted Jay Reserve). We are fundraising with a benefit fine art print project for the reserve and ejido (collective) El Palmito. This village is located next to the famed birding site Barranca Rancho Liebre. This is located near the spectacular Durango Highway and is about a two hour drive Southeast of Mazatlan, Sinaloa. The reserve is just over 12,000 acres of beautiful pine-oak forest highland habitat. I have been to this wonderful site on three occasions and was fortunate to have had great views of Tufted Jays on each visit. I am eager to return with the Jeepney team as the reserve has recently constructed simple but nice cabanas to house birders, naturalists, and adventurers.

The reserve is home to many fantastic birds such as Red Warblers, Red-headed Tanagers, Mountain Trogons, rare Eared Quetzals, and occasionally Wintering Thick-billed Parrots. The star of the region is the striking and charismatic Tufted Jay. These gnarly jays are the coolest… They have a very limited range in and around the surrounding areas of the reserve and are found nowhere else. Their small population is threatened mostly by logging and loss of habitat due to agriculture conversion.

El Palmito has taken their land and future into their own hands, and with the conservation group Pronatura, have established the Chara Pinta Reserve. They have significantly reduced logging and established an ecotourism company to protect the jay, their forest, and to help provide a sustainable economic future for their collective. The funds from our Tufted Jay benefit print will help support the strong environmental/conservation education programs that they have been established for El Palmito children.

Learn more about the Tufted Jay from our previous blog post A Canyon of Their Own, and enjoy my trip in images below.

Endlessly inspired by his trip to Mexico’s El Triunfo Reserve, David Tomb’s …