Riverine Sand Beaches

riverine sand beaches
Typical riverine sand beach showing some of the first colonizing shrubs. Photo: Diego Calderon.

Riverine Sand Beaches

Riverine sand beaches occur largely in whitewater Amazonian rivers, which are subject to changes in water levels of up to 7 meter between the wet and dry seasons. During the dry season, extensive sandbars are exposed along the rivers and remain dry until the onset of the next wet season. Sandy beaches constitute nesting and also foraging habitat for a set of resident and migratory birds, some of which nest exclusively on this habitat type. Riverine sand beaches can be the first stage of a river island before grasses and Tessaria sp. begin the process of colonization and vegetative successions.

riverine sand beaches
A riverine sand beach in Amazonia.

riverine sand beaches
A riverine sand beach in the upper Marañon River.

See more Neotropical bird habitats.

Reference:


  • Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation. Stotz Douglas F., Fitzpatrick John W., Parker Theodore A. III, and Moskovits Debra K. University of Chicago Press, 1996.