Then, out of nowhere, a plump, thrush-sized bird with a chestnut back, grey front, black crown and white face-patch materialises just a few feet away. It proceeds to gulp down the earthworms as if it has not eaten for days.<\/p>\n I have seen a lot of different birds, but never one that so changed the course of bird conservation. In November 1997, a group led by the influential US ornithologist Robert Ridgely was exploring this area of southern Ecuador<\/a> to see what they could find.<\/p>\n As they ascended a forest trail at dawn, they heard the sound of a bird in the far distance. As Ridgely recalled many years later, \u201cIt had this crazy call, sounding like an owl; but we had no idea what it was, and to be honest I never thought we would find out.\u201d<\/p>\n Ridgely walked ahead of the group, and heard the sound much closer than before. He recorded the call and played it back to the mystery creature, which came crashing through the dense bamboo, right out into the open.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew right away that this was something really special, which no one apart from the local people had ever seen \u2013 an entirely new species to science.\u201d It was, in fact, one of the greatest ornithological breakthroughs of the late 20th century: while new species are sometimes discovered, they are rarely so large, noisy and so obviously different from other members of their family.<\/p>\n Talking to local farmers, Ridgely discovered that they were familiar with the bird, which they had named \u201cjocotoco<\/em>\u201d to represent its loud, barking call. Two years later, the species was officially described, and named the jocotoco antpitta; the scientific name, Grallaria ridgelyi<\/em>, commemorating its proud discoverer.<\/p>\n Ridgely soon realised that if the bird was to be saved from extinction its forest home needed to be urgently protected. He and a group of like-minded friends created an organisation dedicated to saving the bird and its habitat, raising funds from donors in the US and Europe to buy and restore the land. In 1998 the Jocotoco Foundation was born.<\/p>\n Today, the foundation protects and manages 19 reserves throughout Ecuador, covering about 50,000 hectares (193 sq miles), and manages a further 82,000 hectares of privately and communally owned land. Together, these sites are home to more than 1,350 species of birds \u2013 that\u2019s 80% of all those found in Ecuador, and an astonishing one in eight of all bird species on the planet, as well as many other plant and animal species. The foundation also works closely with nearby communities, employing local people as park rangers \u2013 many of whom grew up on the land they now protect \u2013 and through jobs in wildlife tourism.<\/p>\n The model for the foundation\u2019s reserves is simple and very effective. First, it restores habitat by planting a variety of native trees and other plants, or in some places simply allows the vegetation to regenerate on its own. Park guards, all of whom come from local communities, protect the reserves against illegal incursions such as cattle grazing, logging and poaching, aided by new technology including camera traps and audio recorders.<\/p>\n They also use these to monitor the fortunes of key species, while providing nest boxes to encourage them to breed, making up for the loss of natural tree cavities while the old-growth forests are being restored.<\/p>\n