Brazilsp

Rediscovered Brazilian Birds [posted by Wayne Hsu (F.B.Magpie)]

New bird discovered in Brazil, by Michael Astor (Associated Press)

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 25 -- The song, a prolonged repetition of short notes, was unlike anything the three ornithologists had heard before. And when they set up nets last year to capture the bird, they found out why -- the song came from a species unknown to science.
   Marcos Bornschein, Bianca Reinhert and Mauro Pichorim -- researchers at the Federal University of Parana -- are calling the bird "macuquinho-da-varzea," or lowland tapaculo, until the full scientific
description and name are published later this year in the Brazilian ornithological journal Ararajuba.
   An official announcement of the bird's discovery may not come until after a dam being built on the Iraji River floods the lowland tapaculo's habitat -- an area of no more than 12 acres (five hectares).
   "This marks the first time in Brazil that a bird is threatened with extinction by a dam," Bornschein said by telephone from the southern city of Curitiba, 420 miles (680 km) southwest of Rio de Janeiro.
   The tiny gray and black bird, which belongs to the genus Scytalopus, isn't much to look at. It weighs half an ounce (15 gm) and measures some four inches (10 cm). Still, it didn't look like anything the three ornithologists had seen before.
   The bird's song was different and so was its habitat -- a marshy area inside Curitiba's metropolitan area == leading the researchers to believe it was a new species.
   "There are a lot of other Scytalopae that look like it, but with this bird the song is different and the type of terrain it inhabits is different," said Jose Fernando Pacheco, an ornithologist with the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro. He confirmed the team's findings.
   Another Scytalopus species lives in the forest just a few kilometers from where the lowland tapaculo makes its home, but that bird has a different song and never wanders on to the marshes.
   Several Scytalopae also live thousands of miles away in the Andes. But closer study of this bird revealed that 11 features, from the shape of the feathers to the bird's bone structure, were unique, Bornschein said.
   The lowland tapaculo is the second new bird species that Bornschein and Reinert have discovered. Their first find, the Stymphalornis acupirostris, lives in the same marshy area as the lowland tapaculo.

Recently Wayne Hsu did an excellent job in bringing the plight of the newly discovered Tapaculo in southern Brazil to the attention of Birdchatters. As chatters know, south-eastern Brazil, specially the
Atlantic Forest (that extends into Argentina and Paraguay), is one the areas with the highest number of endemic bird species in the world.

In the last 10 years 3 species that had been pressumed extinct were rediscovered in southern Brazil: Black-hooded Antwren, Calyptura Kinglet and Cherry-throated Tanager.

Some excellent photos of the antwren and the tanager can be found at the following site:

http://www.ao.com.br/

Click the line Proxima Edicao (Next issue) for photos of the antwren at a nest!

Click line Ultimas Edicoes (Last issues) then click line N. 82 - Março/Abril (March/April) de 1998
for photos of the tanager, also in this file is an illustration of the recently described new manakin species, Antilophia bokermanni, as well as a photo of the Cipo' Canastero, a species that was described to science not too long ago.
                                                Dalcio Dacol
                                                Washington, DC
                                                dacol@nrl.navy.mil
                                                202-404-4824

A new genus and species of passerine - Cryptosylvicola randrianasoloi is described from the
eastern rain forest of Madagascar in Ibis (1996) Vol. 138 pp 153-159.

Brazil: The April 24, 1998 issue of O Estado de São Paulo reports the discovery in 1997 of a new species of tapaculo, apparently a Scytalopus, by Marcos Bornschein, Bianca Reinert and Mauro Pichorim, in a three-hectare patch of marsh along the Rio Itaí in Quatro Barras, about 20 km east of Curitiba, Paraná. The article states that the ornithologists were trying to observe SICKLE-WINGED NIGHTJAR, Eleothreptus anomalus, when they discovered the new tapaculo, but it does not indicate whether they found the Nightjar. Twitchers had better act fast -- the type locality is about to be inundated by the reservoir behind a new dam! Except for its habitat, from the newspaper description, the bird appears to be typical of Scytalopus -- dark grey to black above and lighter below (Handheld photo), with a call consisting of one repeated note. Those of us who have gone to see the Marsh Antwren, Formicivora (Stymphalornis) acutirostris, discovered by Bornschein and Reinert in 1995,
have driven within 20 kilometers of the tapaculo site en route to Matinhos, PR. UPDATE: May 7, 1998 message from Dimas Pioli posted on BirdChat: "The dam project is well underway. They were already cutting down the riparian woodland and preparing to set the marsh on fire to clean what is expected to be the bottom of the lake. The ornithologists filed for a stay in court and got 60 days to try to do something. They have found the bird in a couple of other marshes in the neighborhood, but the areas are already very damaged (sand extraction for construction) and contain just a few individuals. The population in the original area is much healthier."UPDATE, May 20, 1998: Request by Dimas Pioli for letters to the local authorities: Request for Assistance.

See the Atualidades Ornitológicas Website for a stunning color photo of the recently
rediscovered CHERRY-THROATED TANAGER, Nemosia rourei, and a color illustration of the newly-discovered manakin from Ceará, which has tentatively been named Antilophila
bokermanni. Click on "Últimas Edições", then No. 82, March-April, 1998, and scroll down to page 6.

May 24, 1998

1 - Ornithologists Marcos Bornschein and Bianca Reinhert have just returned from a 2-day excursion to a few very healthy marshes in a larger region around the site where the Wet Tall-grass Tapaculo was discovered. They DID NOT find the bird in other locations.

2 – I am happy to let all know that we have just received support from Mr. Rob Williams, Chairman of the Neotropical Bird Club and Researcher for BirdLife International. We are confident that the Neotropical Bird Club and BirdLife International will send official letters to the authorities in the state of Parana.

3 – I have also to apologize to Ms. Julie Craves, Supervisor Ornithologist at the River Rouge Bird Observatory, University of Michigan – Dearborn, for not giving her the credit for being the one to bring this issue to our attention. I have had the opportunity of being a volunteer bird bander with her, and enjoyed the heaven that the natural areas of UMD are for tropical migrants, right smack in the metropolitan area of Detroit. I am happy to be able to consider her a very good friend, and her help has been invaluable in my amateur ornithological formation. You can find more about Ms. Julie Craves and the River Rouge Bird Observatory banding lab at:

http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/rouge_river/index.html It is a great site.

If you go to staff/volunteers page you can also see my picture, and by clicking on my name, see some then "entertaining" information about myself. My e-mail address on that page is OUTDATED.

4 – Finally, I still have to say that our campaign in not receiving enough attention from the birding / ornithological community, despite the support from several very authoritative ornithologists, institutions and a small group of birders. I renew here my appeal to all of you. Please right to the authorities in Brazil, according to the letter and addresses posted here at BIRDCHAT, and don't forget to send me a copy so I can know the response that our campaign is having. It seems that the lawyers for the water supply company, SANEPAR, are looking for some kind of agreement with the ornithologists, but we can't drop the ball now. We can only accept an agreement that contemplates the survival of the Wet Tall-grass Tapaculo, and in order to be able to negotiate that, we need the national and the
international communities to keep the pressure. If the negotiations don't go well, we may need to take other more concrete measures.

Again, thank you so much for your attention,

Dimas Pioli
aves-br@triang.com.br
Uberlandia - Brasil

Barry Kent MacKay's column from the Toronto Star

Help save new bird in Brazil!

New Neotropical bird discovered, in Ecuador

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