Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) resighting in Venezuela and Canada

Red Knot FELG9HL, Falcón, Venezuela, 29 Mar 2019. Photo: Gianco Angelozzi

On 29 March, a team of ornithologists working on a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network project (Sandra Giner, Virginia Sanz, Gianco Angelozzi and I) were carrying out International Shorebird Censuses on the Punta Maragüey spit on the western coast of Falcón with Jose Ochoa. Gianco was able to get close to a flock of several hundred Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) moulting into breeding plumage, and using our best optics - a superb new Kowa scope donated in 2018 by Cley Spy - to pick out and photograph seven flagged individuals, of which only FELG9HL was legible; this bird also carried a geolocator (Gianco's photograph attached - more here).

Red Knot FELG9HL, Ontario, Canada, 20 May 2019. Photo: photographer unknown

Today I checked the bird's whereabouts and found that it had been photographed (attached - photographer unknown) 52 days later on 20 May in magnificent full breeding plumage at a reservoir W of Townsend in S Ontario, Canada. This elucidates only part of the jigsaw puzzle of migratory connectivity for this threatened shorebird, and quite appropriate given that this Manomet / WHSRN work is financed by Environment Canada. Next stop for these birds will be the high Arctic. The earliest data available for FELG9HL come from 30 May 2011 in Delaware, so the bird is perhaps 10 years old and will have made this journey as many times.

IUCN formally adopts the use of Red Lists for Ecosystems

Red Data Books were conceived in 1963 by Peter Scott as "a register of threatened wildlife that includes definitions of degrees of threat" (Scott et al. 1987). The first Red List, an abbreviated form of the Red Data Book, was published exactly 50 years ago, and Red Lists of threatened species are now a well-established conservation tool. Today, IUCN formally adopted the categories and criteria for evaluating threatened ecosystems, creating the equivalent Red Lists for Ecosystems. This concept, conceived and pioneered in Venezuela, will now become an internationally-recognised way to assess the conservation status of the ever more threatened spaces that all Earth's species, including ourselves, inhabit. 

The first ever assessment of a country's ecosystems was carried out in Venezuela in 2010 (Rodríguez et al. 2010) and a Red List of American ecosystems, from Alaska to Patagonia, will be published next year. The door is now open for a global list.


References

CEM-IUCN & Provita (2012) IUCN Red List of ecosystems. The Comission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Provita, Caracas, Venezuela. http://www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org.

Rodríguez, J.P., F. Rojas-Suárez & D. Giraldo Hernández (eds.) (2010) Libro Rojo de los ecosistemas terrestres de Venezuela. Provita, Shell Venezuela & Lenovo (Venezuela): Caracas, Venezuela. 324 pp. PDF.

Scott, P., J.A. Burton & R. Fitter (1987) Red Data Books: the historical background. Pp. 1-6 in: Fitter, R. & M. Fitter (Eds.) The road to extinction. IUCN: Gland, Switzerland.

Táchira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia on the EDGE: evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered

Táchira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia (Mercedes Madriz)

Last week, a team of UK and US scientists published a paper identifying the conservation priorities for the world's 9,993 bird species based on evolutionary distinctness, a measure of a species’ contribution to the total evolutionary history of its clade[...], expected to capture uniquely divergent genomes and functions (Jetz et al. 2014). In parallel, the Zoological Society of London compiled a list of the world's 100 most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) bird species. The findings were widely publicised by the media.

The ZSL's EDGE list includes one Venezuelan bird, Táchira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia, ranked 89th. This Venezuelan endemic is one of the very few of the world's birds that remain unknown in life: there are no photographs, no sound recordings and no living person has ever encountered one. The species is only known from four specimens collected at a single locality nearly 60 years ago. In short, it is an avian enigma. Its curious specific epithet derives from the Greek khthonios, meaning "in the earth" – and it might as well be.

The only evidence that the bird really exists are the four museum specimens languishing in the drawers of the Colección Ornitológica Phelps in Caracas and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. All of them were obtained from the same tiny spot: Hacienda La Providencia (c.7°38'N 72°15'W; Paynter 1982), along the río Chiquito in southwestern Táchira state, on the eastern slopes of the Páramo de Tamá in the Andes of western Venezuela. The holotype (COP 61.055, on deposit at USNM, now NMNH) was taken at 1,800 m by the Phelps Collection's intrepid collector Ramón Urbano on 10 February 1955, together with a paratype. Two further skins – both males like the previous type specimens – were obtained at 2,100 m the following March and the species was described later that year by Wetmore and Phelps (1956). The female has never been encountered.

That is the last time that the bird was seen in life. A three-day search specifically for the species in September 1990 was unsuccessful, but there was no reason to fear for its future, since the type locality still held pristine forest above 1600 m (Collar et al. 1992). By December 1996 however, coffee plantations in the río Chiquito Valley had advanced up to 1600 m, and much forest at 1900–2200 m (including the type locality) had been converted to agriculture; although the species was not found at this time, it may have been present in neighbouring valleys, which were apparently less disturbed (BirdLife International 2000).

The type locality for Grallaria chthonia and the forests that surround it lie within Venezuela's El Tamá National Park, an IUCN Category II protected area which extends over 1,390 km² and is designated as an Important Bird Area (Lentino & Esclasans 2005), part of the Colombian East Andes Endemic Bird Area. In addition, the known and potential range falls within one of the highest priority bioregions for the conservation of Venezuela's birds (Rodríguez et al. 2004). This region is also recognised as one of the most threatened in Venezuela, with at least 17% of the habitat within the National Park affected by deforestation for agriculture (principally coffee cultivation) and to create livestock pasture (Sharpe & Lentino 2008).

For the above reasons, Táchira Antpitta is considered Critically Endangered both nationally and internationally (Sharpe 2008, BirdLife International 2014). Its population is now estimated to consist of fewer than 50 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2014).

Basic field surveys are urgently needed in order to determine the true status of this virtually unknown antpitta; seasonality of vocalisation should be taken into account, with surveys to be carried out in May–June (BirdLife International 2014). In addition, there are questions over its true taxonomic status. On plumage characters, Grallaria chthonia appears to be most closely related to G. guatimalensis and Hilty (2003) suggests that it may be a higher elevation subspecies of the latter. On the other hand, Ridgely & Tudor (1994) and Krabbe & Schulenberg (2003) believe that chthonia is probably more more similar to (or even conspecific with) alleni. Until the species is better known, with molecular and vocal evidence considered, the true affinities of this evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species will remain uncertain. 

Further information on this species – and all the world's birds – can be found at HBW Alive.


References

BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Lynx Edicions & BirdLife International: Barcelona & Cambridge. 852 pp.

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Grallaria chthonia. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 17/04/2014.

Collar, N.J., Gonzaga, L.P., Krabbe, N., Madroño, A., Naranjo, L.G., Parker, T.A. & Wege, D.C. (1992) Threatened birds of the Americas. The ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book. 3rd edition, part 2. ICBP: Cambridge. 1,150 pp.

Hilty, S. L. (2003) Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press: Princeton NJ. 928 pp.

Jetz, W., Thomas, G.H., Joy, J.B., Redding, D.W., Hartmann, K., Mooers, A.O. (2014) Global distribution and conservation of evolutionary distinctness in birds. Current Biology. 

Krabbe, N.K. & Schulenberg, T.S. (2003) Family Formicariidae (ground-antbirds). Pp. 682-731 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 8. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona. 845 pp.

Krabbe, N.K., Schulenberg, T.S. & Sharpe, C.J. (2013) Tachira Antpitta (Grallaria chthonia). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) Handbook of the birds of the world alive. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona. Retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/56887 on 17 April 2014.

Lentino, M. & Esclasans, D. (2005) Áreas importantes para la conservación de las aves en Venezuela. Pp. 621-769 in: BirdLife International and Conservation International (eds.) Áreas importantes para la conservación de las aves en los Andes Tropicales (Serie de Conservación de BirdLife, No. 14). BirdLife International: Quito, Ecuador.

Paynter, R.A. (1982) Ornithological gazetteer of Venezuela. Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology: Cambridge, Mass. 245 pp.

Ridgely, R.S. & Tudor, G. (1994)  The birds of South America. Volume II: the suboscine passerines. University of Texas Press: Austin. 814pp.

Rodríguez, J.P., Rojas-Suárez, F. & Sharpe, C.J. (2004) Setting priorities for the conservation of Venezuela's threatened birds. Oryx 38(4): 373-382.

Sharpe, C.J. (2008) Aves. Pp. 116-157 in: Rodríguez, J.P. & Rojas-Suárez, F. eds. Libro Rojo de la fauna venezolana, 3rd edition. Provita & Shell Venezuela, S.A., Caracas, Venezuela. 364 pp. 

Sharpe, C.J. & Lentino, M. (2008) Hormiguero tororoi tachirense Grallaria chthonia. P. 144 in: Rodríguez, J.P. & Rojas-Suárez, F. eds. Libro Rojo de la fauna venezolana, 3rd edition. Provita & Shell Venezuela, S.A., Caracas, Venezuela. Available online as: Sharpe, C.J. & Lentino, M. (2013) Hormiguero tororoi tachirense Grallaria chthonia. WikiEVA: Especies Venezolanas Amenazadas.

Wetmore, A. & Phelps, W.H. (1956) Further additions to the list of birds of Venezuela. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 69: 1-10.

Recommended citation:-

Sharpe, C.J. (2014) Táchira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia on the EDGE: evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. The Curious Naturalist. Downloaded from http://thecuriousnaturalist.blogspot.com/2014/04/tachira-antpitta-grallaria-chthonia-on.html on .

Re-finding the Recurve-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii

Brooke Keeney of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recently asked for permission to use photos of Recurve-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii for the Lab's Neotropical Birds portal. The images have just gone up on the Recurve-billed Bushbird page. I'm set to recalling my first encounter with the bird, which resulted in these first photographs in 2004. At the time this species was effectively 'unknown in life', with no photographs, no sound recordings and unseen by ornithologists for almost 40 years. Steve Hilty (author of Birds of Colombia and, later, Birds of Venezuela) had told me during a converstion in 1992 that it would be THE bird to find in Venezuela.

Recurve-billed Bushbird was first described in 1870 by one of the founders of New York's American Museum of Natural History, Daniel Giraud Elliot, on the basis of one adult and one immature male supposedly taken on the "Rio Napo" (in fact, 'Bogotá' trade specimens). As Elliot notes, 

This extraordinary form of Formicariidae is apparently an exaggeration of Mr. Sclater's genus Neoctantes, to which it seems to be nearest allied. In many respects resembling other members of the genus Thamnophilus, it yet differs greatly from them in the form of the bill, and shape and size of the feet and claws.

Plate from Elliot's original description.

With no accurate idea of its range, the bird remained elusive, though almost certainly known to local inhabitants. A number of specimens were taken between 1914 and 1951 in the lowlands and foothill forests of NE Colombia. There were no Venezuelan specimens until the closing days of 1950, when an expedition including Hno. Ginés based itself at Kunana, west of Machiques from where a male and four females were obtained on Cerros Ayapa, Panapicho and El Escondido. After 1951 there are no further records except for Willis's extraordinary observation of foraging behaviour at a Colombian site in 1965 - up until then, the only documented encounter with live birds. 

In this context, Jorge Pérez-Emán and I began systematically searching for the bird in 2001, but it was not until April 2004 that we got lucky. We had spent ten days in a fairly remote part of the Venezuelan side of the Sierra de Perijá - my third trip to the area.

Dawn over the Sierra de Perijá.

The region was - at the time at least - notorious for the presence of Colombian guerrilla, which scared off casual visitors and certainly most birders. Local, Maracaibo-based birder José Gustavo León and entomologist Angel Viloria were two of the very few exploratory pioneers. When Miguel Lentino of the Colección Ornitológica Phelps invited Jorge and I to take part in a Rapid Assessment Programme (RAP), under the auspices of Conservation International and the Sociedad Audubon de Venezuela, we jumped at the chance. José Gustavo gave us the benefit of his store of local knowledge and suggested the best site for the RAP. 

Jorge Pérez-Eman negotiates one of several landslides on the steep mountain roads.

The RAP aimed to produce a quick overview of the entire avifauna of the area, but being in Bushbird territory, I found it impoossible to pass up the opportunity for searching for such an elusive bird. A tip from José Gustavo led us to search some overgrown agricultural plots where, one hot, sweaty, mosquito-filled morning while drowsing by the net, I heard a distinctive Thamnophilid song that was new to me and could only be our target. I was lying in the undergrowth some distance from my recording gear, that I had carefully hooked to a snag, and had to decide whether to make a noise and lose time in getting ready to record or whether to imitate the song. I chose the latter, made several whistled imitations and within a few minutes a pair of large antbirds - one black, one chestnut - were heading purposefully towards us, jumping from stem to stem. There was an outside chance that they could have been Immaculate Antbirds Myrmeciza immaculata, a common bird on the mountain - but a quick look through binculars at the bill confirmed that they weren't!

Chris Sharpe with a pair of Clytoctantes alixii, the first ornithologists had encountered in almost 40 pears. Photo: Jorge Pérez-Emán

♂ Recurve-billed Bushbird.

♂ Recurve-billed Bushbird.

♂ Recurve-billed Bushbird showing the semi-concealed white dorsal patch common to many other Thamnophilids.

♀ Recurve-billed Bushbird.

♀ Recurve-billed Bushbird.

♀ Recurve-billed Bushbird showing its scissors.

Recurve-billed Bushbird habitat in Perijá.

References

Elliot, D.G. (1870) Descriptions of some new Genera and Species of Birds belonging to the Families Formicariidae, Pachycephalidae and Sylviidae. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1870: 242–244.

Ginés, H., Aveledo, R.. Pons, A., Yepez Tamayo, G. & Muñoz Tebar, R. (1953) Lista y comentario de las aves colectadas en la región de Perijá. Memoria de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle 13:145–202.

Willis, E.O. (1988) Behavioral notes, breeding records, and range extensions for Colombian birds. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 16(63): 137–150.


Recommended citation:-

Sharpe, C.J. (2013) Re-finding the Recurve-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii. The Curious Naturalist. Downloaded from http://thecuriousnaturalist.blogspot.com/2013/08/recurve-billed-bushbird-clytoctantes.html on .

Jun 2015 update: A summary of what we now know about this species available on Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive:-

Zimmer, K., Isler, M.L. & Sharpe, C.J. (2015). Recurve-billed Bushbird (Clytoctantes alixii). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2015). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/56691 on 30 June 2015).