Neotropical Birding 17 is out!

Neotropical Birding 17 is printed and has been available at the UK Birdfair since Friday. I was there today and enjoyed seeing the Neotropical Bird Club stand. This issue has been assembled in record time – six weeks – but is nevertheless one of the most satisfying numbers I have put together. Photos of what will now be recognised as a "new" species of owl for North America (Strix sartorii), the article on Sierra de Perijá and the nice image of Pterodroma–Stercorarius interspecific social dominance mimicry (ISDM) are my highlights. I had some really nice unsolicited comments from people at the Birdfair - thank you all! 

Welcome to issue 17 of Neotropical Birding! 

You've heard of Africa's Big Five and Big Seven, but the average birder prefers the Big Six. Where in the world? Of course, it's the Paraguayan Chaco. Our veteran ornithologists Paul Smith and Rob Clay take us on a tour that targets the Chaco Big Six – figuratively, although they will literally be taking a group there on one of our regular NBC Fundraising tours later this year. They might even throw in a couple of extras that could one day make a Paraguayan Big Eight!

For a break from the heat, try some Andean birding in the isolated mountain range of Perijá on the Colombia-Venezuela border. This little-visited and relatively neglected range has been explored with some difficulty from the Venezuelan side, resulting in some remarkable discoveries in recent years. Travelling to the Colombian side, Trevor Ellery takes us to ProAves' newly-established Chamicero del Perijá (Perija Thistletail) Reserve. The lodge gives access to birds that were the stuff of dreams about only three or four years ago, including what will almost certainly be recognised as an endemic “Rufous” Antpitta, Grallaria (rufula) saltuensis, as well as the eponymous thistletail.

The second of our Birding Sites is the Río Bigal Biological Reserve in eastern Ecuador, a favourite of Juan Freile, Vincent Mouret and Mathieu Siol. Nestled in the Andean foothills, the reserve enjoys the best of both worlds, with a heady avifaunal mix of Amazonian and Andean species – and some really special birds characteristic of these elevations like the poorly-known, but stunning Pink-throated Brilliant Heliodoxa gularis.

In our last issue, Steve Howell examined Markham's Storm Petrel identification at sea. This time Fabrice Schmitt dispenses with the dramamine and takes us to recently-discovered Markham's Storm Petrel breeding colonies in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The nest sites of Ringed Storm Petrel remain a mystery – but for how long?

Sticking with seabirds, Alex Lees, Fabio Olmos and Alberto Campos go pelagic birding off the coast of NE Brazil. Their targets? Trindade Petrel Pterodroma arminjoniana tops a list that could include just about anything. Their article includes quite a few species for which there are only a handful of Brazilian records.

But if a handful of records is not exclusive enough, and you have a penchant for those really elusive birds, then they do not come much more enigmatic than Mexico's mystery Cinereous Owl Strix (“varia”) sartorii. Birding at the Cutting Edge, Nathan Pieplow and Andrew Spencer present the first photographs and sonograms, and tell us all about one of the most exciting encounters in North American birding for some time.

Our Globally Threatened Bird, the Colombian endemic Chestnut-capped Piha Lipaugus weberi, was only discovered in 1999 and is already Endangered – perhaps even Critically Endangered. This reinforces an idea that crops up with alarming regularity in Neotropical Birding: species becoming extinct even before we know them.

Alex Lees' invites you to “Get your lists out!” one last time for his final thoughts on Splits, lumps and shuffles. This is the column that turns everyone into an armchair taxonomist, providing fuel for arguments over the sanity of the AOU or IOC, Clements or HBW / BirdLife. Birdwise, it's the usual suspects once again: Pyrrhura parakeets, woodcreepers and Splitalopus. But should you have been paying more attention to those Grey-necked Wood Rails and Red-crowned Ant Tanagers – a probable future armchair tick or two for anyone who has been to both Central and South America?

As ever, Jez Bird brings us his regular NBC Conservation Awards Update. NBC continues to finance vital projects to conserve Neotropical Birds. Please join the Club if you would like to support our valuable work.

And finally, I would like to thank all our contributors, many of whom supplied unique material to meet a very tight schedule, writing articles, answering requests and sending photographs directly from the field. Thank you for sparing the time to make NB17 possible. I owe a special debt of gratitude to those who provide first class text and images for every issue, helping us unconditionally – you know who you are, and our readers do too!

Happy Neotropical birding!

Christopher J. Sharpe, Senior Editor

Neotropical Birding 17: contents

Sharpe, C. J. (2015) Welcome to issue 17 of Neotropical Birding. Neotrop. Birding 17: 2–3.

Schmitt, F., Barros, R. & Norambuena, H. (2015) Markham’s Storm Petrel breeding colonies discovered in Chile. Neotrop. Birding 17: 5–10. [Oceanodroma markhami, Oceanodroma hornbyi, Oceanites gracilis] E-mail: fabrschmitt at yahoo dot com

Lees, A. C., Olmos, F. & Campos, A. (2015) Here be gadflies: pelagic birding off north-east Brazil. Neotrop. Birding 17: 11–18. [Pterodroma arminjoniana, Calonectris
borealis, Oceanodroma leucorhoa, Stercorarius pomarinus; nice image of Pterodroma–Stercorarius interspecific social dominance mimicry (ISDM)] E-mail: alexanderlees at btopenworld dot com

Lees, A. C. (2015) Splits, lumps and shuffles. Neotrop. Birding 17: 19–27. [resume of recent publications on taxonomy and systematics concerning multiple taxa] E-mail: alexanderlees at btopenworld dot com

Sharpe, C. J. (2015) Chestnut-capped Piha Lipaugus weberi. Neotrop. Birding 17: 28–31. E-mail: sharpebirder at gmail dot com

Pieplow, N. & Spencer, A. (2015) Finding Mexico’s mystery owl—Cinereous Owl Strix (varia?) sartorii. Neotrop. Birding 17: 34–39. [Strix sartorii, Strix varia, Strix fulvescens] E-mail: npieplow at gmail dot com

Smith, P. & Clay, R. P. (2015) Birding the Paraguayan Dry Chaco—The Big Six. Neotrop. Birding 17: 40–46. [Eudromia formosa, Chunga burmeisteri, Dryocopus schulzi, Strix chacoensis, Spiziapteryx circumcincta, Rhinocrypta lanceolata] E-mail: faunaparaguay at gmail dot com

Freile, J.F., Mouret, V. & Siol, M. (2015) Amidst a crowd of birds: Birding Río Bigal, Ecuador. Neotrop. Birding 17: 47–55. [E Andean Ecuadorian foothill specialities, e.g. Heliodoxa gularis] E-mail: jfreileo at yahoo dot com

Ellery, T. (2015) The Serranía del Perijá—an exciting new destination in Colombia. Neotrop. Birding 17: 58–67. [Perijá endemic taxa, e.g. Metallura iracunda, Metallura tyrianthina districta, Coeligena (bonapartei) consita, Grallaria ("rufula") saltuensis, Scytalopus perijanus, Asthenes gularis, Synallaxis unirufa munoztebari, Anisognathus lacrymosus pallididorsalis, Arremon perijanus, Atlapetes (latinuchus) nigrifrons] E-mail: trevor_lotan at hotmail dot com

Jeffers, R. (2015) Club news. Forthcoming NBC fundraising tours. Neotrop. Birding 17: 70. 

Bird, J. (2015) NBC Conservation Awards update. Neotrop. Birding 17: 71–74. [Vultur gryphus, Pyrrhura griseipectus] E-mail: jezbird at gmail dot com

Rufous-thighed Kite (Harpagus diodon): a new Atlantic Forest breeding endemic

Rufous-thighed Kite Harpagus diodon. By Rick elis.simpson (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last month, I came across a neat little paper re-examining the migratory status of the enigmatic Rufous-thighed Kite Harpagus diodon, a species usually mapped over a large area of South America east of the Andes and, until fairly recently, assumed to be a thinly-spread resident. Using museum specimen data, and harnessing the power of increasingly popular collaborative avian datasets such as xeno-canto, eBird, the Internet Bird Collection, and especially WikiAves, the authors took a closer look at the facts (Lees & Martin 2014). Their detective work shows how much we often take for granted about South American bird distributions and highlights the enormous value of free data-sharing initiatives. I liked the research enough to write a short news bulletin at the start of the month. The authors do a much better job today on the BOU blog post A tale of two kites. 

These findings are not merely of academic importance. Given that Rufous-thighed Kite is now thought to be an Atlantic Forest breeding endemic and that only 11·7% of this biome remains (Ribeiro et al. 2009), the species could be in serious trouble. Populations at the end of 19th century are likely to have been at least ten times higher than at present (Lees & Martin 2014) and its current rarity may simply be explained as the result of catastrophic loss of habitat.


References

Bierregaard, R.O., Jr, Bonan, A., Marks, J.S. & Sharpe, C.J. (2014) Rufous-thighed Kite (Harpagus diodon). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2014). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/52974 on 30 September 2014). 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Harpagus diodon. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22695063 on 30/09/2014.

Lees, A.C. & Martin, R.W. (2014) Exposing hidden endemism in a Neotropical forest raptor using citizen science. Ibis doi: 10.1111/ibi.12207. PDF

Ribeiro, M.C., Metzger, J.P., Martensen, A.C., Ponzoni, F.J. & Hirota, M.M. (2009) The Brazilian Atlantic Forest: how much is left, and how is the remaining forest distributed? Implications for conservation. Biological Conservation 142(6): 1141-1153. PDF

Book review: A Sparrowhawk's Lament by David Cobham

A Sparrowhawk's Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring

David Cobham with Bruce Pearson
Princeton University Press WILDGuides | 2014
256 pp. | 15.2 x 21.6 cm | 80 illustrations
Hardback | £24.95 / $ 35.00 | ISBN: 9780691157641

I am half way through A Sparrowhawk's Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey are Faring by David Cobham, illustrated by Bruce Pearson. This is a WILDGuides publication, but quite a departure from the photographic field guides for which the imprint is usually known. It is a personal look at the status of the UK's raptors, written by someone who has a long history of involvement in the conservation of our birds of prey, and a current vice-president of the Hawk and Owl Trust. The writing is a little quirky, being a conversational mixture of field notes, diary entries, interviews and personal recollections of meetings with a variety of people and excursions to every corner of the UK, all supported by bibliographic research; it takes some getting used to, but the passion and experience shine through to make this a rewarding, thought-provoking and topical read.

A chapter is devoted to each of the UK's 15 breeding diurnal raptors species, examining their changing fortunes from the earliest records to the present day. Most of the UK's species follow the same sad trajectory of abundance in the pre-industrial age, persecution by gamekeepers to near extinction or extinction during the 19^th and 20^th centuries (particularly after the 1831 Game Act and often tipped over the edge by egg-collectors and / or organochloride pesticide contamination in the 1950s), and contemporary resurgence in response to the conservation actions of a handful of dedicated individuals and organisations. Despite legal protection, the attacks by gamekeepers continue. Kestrel and Merlin populations have, unfortunately, not turned around and the once-familiar sight of the Windhover hanging over the verges of our highways is no longer a feature of road travel. But the glaring exception is the Hen Harrier, still illegally poisoned, trapped and shot by the managers of grouse moors and now teetering on the brink of extinction in England. With outrage about brazen illegal persecution and 'establishment' complicity becoming a political issue, this is quite a topical read. The texts are well complemented by Bruce Pearson's watercolours (reproduced in monochrome), that really capture the spirit of each species.

The author is careful not to turn the book into a critique of those who would have us return to the low raptor densities that unrelenting persecution had achieved before the First World War. Although he does not shy away from recounting the now familiar tales of extermination, he is keen to provide a balanced appraisal and above all to make this a positive book. Indeed, this is an uplifting read. I am finding plenty to enjoy, not least the resonance of described behaviours with those I have been lucky enough to witness myself as well as familiar haunts that crop up in the text. In the winters of the early 1980s I watched the Bowland Forest Hen Harriers hunting in over the hills of Nidderdale, and I have seen the careful protection and monitoring of Marsh Harrier nests at Sculthorpe Moor. The chapter on the Sparrowhawk – a species I monitored closely as a boy – is particularly evocative. And like the author and Mark Cocker (cited in the text) I am saddened by the efforts of political lobby groups like the ironically named SongBird Survival to vilify the species in order to detract attention from the real causes of biodiversity loss. No wonder that such organisations like to compare current raptor populations with those at their nadir a century ago.

A book to be read right through or dipped into at leisure, A Sparrowhawk's Lament is a fitting tribute to our birds of prey and those who work to conserve them. Whether beginner or specialist, everyone will learn something about our formidable, yet vulnerable diurnal raptors.

The author and artist will be interviewed by ChrisPackham at the UK Birdfair tomorrow.

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.

Neotropical Birding 14: contents

Neotropical Birding 14: contents

Lowen, J.C. & G.M. Kirwan (2014) Guest editorial. Neotropical Birding 14: a tribute to Juan Mazar Barnett. Neotrop. Birding 14: 3-4.

Lees, A.C. (2014) Splits, lumps and shuffles. Neotrop. Birding 14: 4-18. [amongst other things, includes a summary of those Amazonian species described in the HBW Special Volume]

Lees, A.C., C. Albano, G.M. Kirwan, J.F. Pacheco & A. Whittaker (2014) The end of hope for Alagoas Foliage-gleaner Philydor novaesi? Neotrop. Birding 14: 20-28.

Pugnali, G. & D. Alarcón Arias (2014) Capital birding: La Paz. Neotrop. Birding 14: 29-36. Available (soon!) as a sample article at: http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/pages/neobirding.asp

Laranjeiras, T.O. & L.N. Naka (2014) Birding sites: The state of Roraima, Brazil. Neotrop. Birding 14: 40-53.

Kirwan, G.M. (2014) Photospot: The blue treasure at the end of the world: Lear’s Macaw in the backlands of Bahia. Neotrop. Birding 14: 54-57. [Anodorhynchus leari]

Kirwan, G.M., D. Brinkhuizen, D. Calderón, B. Davis, J. Minns & I. Roesler (2014) Neotropical Notebook: published and unpublished records. Neotrop. Birding 14: 58-72.

Available (soon!) as a sample article at: http://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/pages/neobirding.asp

Bird, J. (2014) NBC Conservation Awards update. Neotrop. Birding 14: 76-77. [Tachycineta euchrysea]

Sharpe, C.J. (2014) Book review: A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (3^rd edition). Neotrop. Birding 14: 78-79

Sharpe, C.J. (2014) Book review: Handbook of the Birds of the World, Special Volume: New Species and Global Index. Neotrop. Birding 14: 79-80

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).