Bioko Island in Equatorial New Guinea is home to nearly 200 bird species inhabiting its tropical rain forests. Since 2013, the Biodiversity Initiative has made annual expeditions into the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko. With Bioko's wildlife under the threat of deforestation, poaching and human development, researchers are working to swiftly develop conservation strategies.

A gray-headed nigrita (Nigrita canicapillus), photographed in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. Bioko has been separated from mainland Africa for 12,000 years, leading to peripatric speciation, the isolated evolution of species outside the main population.

A forest robin is entangled in a mist net before being extracted, measured, banded and released for a bird survey. These expeditions have led to the discovery of 11 species since 2013, according to Aububon.

A student at the National University of Equatorial Guinea's School of Environmental Studies at the Moka Wildlife Center on Bioko Island. The UNGE, with the Bioko Biodiversity Protection program, grants permits and hires guides for scientists to study in the reserve.

A tattered map of Bioko hangs in the Moka Wildlife Center on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. The Luba Crater Scientific Reserve is a densely forested, protected portion of the southern end of Bioko. However, a recently completed road bisecting the park has given hunters roadside access to regions previously unreachable and has led to widespread poaching and devastation of the wild animal population.

Bioko's Luba Crater Scientific Reserve lies in a dormant volcano's caldera. Its rim rises in the distance. Because of its steep sides, with the only accessible route in requiring a two-day hike from the nearest road, the caldera has remained relatively untouched by people, aside from primatologists, ornithologists and other scientists trekking in to study wildlife.

Jared Wolfe, a wildlife ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, watches birds after dawn near North Camp in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko in Equatorial Guinea.

A black-necked wattle-eye (Platysteira [Dyaphorophaia] chalybea), photographed at the Moka Wildlife Center on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.

An olive-green camaroptera (Camaroptera chloronota), photographed at the Moka Wildlife Center on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.

A juvenile Bocage's akalat (Sheppardia bocagei), photographed in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.

Luke Powell of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko Island. He is a research affiliate with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the director of Biodiversity Initiative, a group focused on avian research and conservation around the world.

Members of an expedition set up camp in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve. The country's bird life remains understudied, mainly because of a lack of local ornithologists, according to Audubon.

After catching birds in mist nets, wildlife biologists gather blood samples with a quick blood draw at the base of a wing, collect fecal samples, document plumage, take other measurements and band the birds, then release them.

According to Audubon, scientists believe there may be dozens of unknown species of birds on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.

Jacob Cooper, a Ph.D. student with the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, spends his day birding and collecting data along the northern edge of the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. Researchers continue to develop local conservation efforts, including providing equipment and training on how to protect the local wildlife.