A NEW SPECIES OF ANTPITTA (GRALLARIIDAE: GRALLARIA ) FROM THE NORTHERN SECTOR OF THE WESTERN ANDES OF COLOMBIA

The Price of Priority

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ORIGINAL POST

A new species of bird for science has been discovered and named after a leading conservation family. The bird is named Fenwick’s Antpitta (Grallaria fenwickorum), after American Bird Conservancy (ABC) President George Fenwick and his family.

 Fenwick’s Antpitta | © ProAves Colombia

The announcement was made after a comprehensive two-year study and review process following the bird’s discovery in 2008. The capture and evaluation process itself was remarkable in that it is one of the first times that a new species for science has been described from an individual captured, banded, measured, photographed, sampled for DNA, and then released alive back into the wild.

The bird that provided the so-called “holotype” for the description was captured in the Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve located on the Paramo del Sol massif in the western Andes of Colombia. The reserve is managed by Fundación ProAves. The 11,322 acre reserve, founded in 2005, is known for a stunning array of threatened birds, including the Critically Endangered Dusky Starfrontlet that was rediscovered in 2004 after being “lost” for over 50 years, and which provided the initial impetus for the Fenwick family’s support to establish the bird reserve.

Habitat | © ProAves Colombia

The new bird species inhabits a highly restricted area of montane cloud forest where dwarf bamboo thickets thrive on rich volcanic soils on the less-humid eastern-facing slopes; a habitat that has undergone extensive clearance for pasturelands in recent decades. The bird has been proposed as Critically Endangered under IUCN-World Conservation Union criteria, with a population described as extremely small and of great conservation concern, making it a priority for ABC.

Fenwick’s Antpitta is a medium-sized, cinnamon and gray colored, thrush-like bird, with a height of about seven inches, and a weight of only about two ounces. G. fenwickorum is considered probably most closely related to Brown-banded Antpitta G. milleri due to similarities in voice and biometrics and generally non-descript plumage. There are two described subspecies of G. milleri: G. m. milleri occurs 165 km southeast in the Central Andes, and the larger G. m. gilesi occurs 70 km east in the northern sector of the Central Andes. G. fenwickorum can be easily diagnosed from both taxa by the complete lack of a brown breast band (with the breast instead being uniform slate grey) and lighter brown dorsal plumage. Its vocalizations are also distinct.

Fenwick’s Antpitta | © ProAves Colombia

The song of Grallaria fenwickorum consists of three notes, progressively increasing in acoustic frequency and length, with the first note briefest and lowest, and the final note longest and highest. The song could be transcribed as: “tu, tuut, TUUET”. The song of G. milleri is similar to that of G. fenwickorum, also comprising three notes of progressively higher pitch and greater length. However, each note of the G. milleri song is diagnosably longer and higher pitched than the equivalent note in G. fenwickorum.

Read the complete description of the species here.

Photos: ProAves Colombia

Source: American Bird Conservancy and ProAves Colombia