These Birds Are National Symbols but Getting Harder to See

The American tropics are uniquely blessed with birds. Thirty-six percent of the world’s 11,000 bird species live in the region south of the border between the United States and Mexico, more than in Asia or Africa.That diversity is reflected in the national birds chosen to represent the countries of Latin America, from the slight southern lapwing — Uruguay’s avian symbol — to the 30-pound Andean condor, the…