Welcome to issue 13 of
Neotropical Birding!
We
begin in Central America, where our cover story is an Identification
workshop on the vocalisations of
Unspotted Saw-whet Owl executed by regular contributor Knut
Eisermann.
Steve
Howell has contributed many scholarly articles to the Club’s
journals, fruit of his unrivalled field experience. This time he
argues persuasively for the recognition of Mexican Hermit
Phaeothornis mexicanus,
originally described by Hartert in 1897, now usually lumped with P.
longirostris.
Taxonomic
decisions have implications for conservation. BirdLife
International’s Joe Taylor explains why Yellow-naped Parrot Amazona
auropalliata is a Globally
threatened bird.
.
Once
again, our twin Photospots
are dedicated to cryptic species - but these subjects are anything
but dull. The two Eleothreptus
nightjars, White-winged and Sickle-winged, are superbly captured by
Paul Smith. The truly bizarre plumage of juvenile Cinereous Mourners
has only just been documented (last year) on the basis of museum
specimens, and our authors, Johan Ingels and Mathieu Entraygues,
provide the first photographs from the field. Even more fascinating
is the video clip that emerged after our article was submitted.
Capital
birding focuses for the first time on a
sub-national territory as Alex Lees invites
us to take a closer look at his adopted
city of Belém, capital of Brazil’s Pará
state, home to the Goeldi Museum and gateway to some mouth-watering
Amazonian birding.
Our
regular Splits, lumps and shuffles
column shows no sign of shrinking. As ever, we are in the capable
hands of Alex Lees, the garimpeiro
of Neotropical ornithological literature.
And
we continue with Book reviews
of the exciting new Fieldbook of the
Birds of Ecuador, including the Galápagos Islands,
and the superb compendium Neotropical Birds
of Prey.
Happy Neotropical
birding!
Christopher J. Sharpe,
Senior Editor
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