Tapaculo Mystery Solved

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:52:04 +0000

The Tapaculos (genus Scytalopus) is one of the most difficult to identify families of birds, mainly because of the similarity in appearance to others within the genus. However an important differentiating characteristic is their voice. In recent years many new species of Tapaculos have been described due to analyses of their song.

On February 9th, Dr. Niels Krabbe and Dr. Daniel Cadena from Fundación ProAves Colombia published in Zootaxa a revision to the Paramo Tapaculo. They identifed multiple taxa (three differentiated lineages), including a new subspecies – Scytalopus opacus androstictus – from southern Ecuador and northernmost Peru. The original “Paramo Tapaculo” has changed its name to "Paramillo Tapaculo" (Scytalopus canus) and is now only known from a highly restricted area of timberline vegetation on Paramo de Paramillo and Paramo del Sol. The subspecies Scytalopus canus opacus has been given species ranking and given the name Paramo Tapaculo (Scytalopus opacus) which occurs across the Northern Andes of Colombia (except the Western Cordillera), Ecuador and northernmost Peru.

Paramillo Tapaculo | ProAves Colombia

At present the Paramillo Tapaculo is only known from Páramo de Paramillo and Páramo de Frontino. It may occur elsewhere in the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia. The Paramillo Tapaculo is restricted to a narrow swath of treeline vegetation (scrub, stunted trees and Polylepis woodland) situated between montane forest and Páramo grasslands that is often just hundreds of meters wide. While locally common, the estimated area of suitable habitat within the known range of the Paramillo Tapaculo is 3 km² in total. Only 0.1 km² is effectively protected by the Fundación ProAves Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve.

According to ProAves Colombia, the Paramillo Tapaculo has not been assessed by IUCN. Given the estimated extent of occurrence and observed decline in the extent and quality of habitat, the Paramillo Tapaculo probably warrants IUCN Critically Endangered status with immediate efforts to assess its population and implement actions to assist its survival.

Listen to the song of the Paramillo Tapaculo:

Paramillo Tapaculo

For more songs follow the Xeno-Canto link

The Blue-crowned Motmot complex could be split into five species

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:52:51 +0000

A recent work published by F. Gary Stiles in the Journal of Colombian Ornithology (Revista Ornitología Colombiana) presents evidence that the group of the Blue-crowned Motmot (Momotus momota) could be composed of at least 5 species based on differences in plumage patterns, biometrics, vocalizations, supplemented by information on geographic distributions and ecology. Some of the groups such as the Highland Motmot (M. m. aequatorialis), had previously attained the status of species, but were ultimately grouped as a subspecies of M. momota by the South American Classification Committee (SACC prop. 117) due to lack of evidence supporting this status. This new proposal by Stiles has prompted a re-examination of this topic by the SACC (prop. 412). This controversy demonstrates the great need for increased research on many groups of Neotropical birds, especially at genetic level.

Without endorsing either side of this controversy, I wanted to present some images and recordings of the songs of the candidate species. I would like to thank all of the people and institutions that allowed me to use their photographs and sound recordings for this post.

For a detailed discussion on plumage characteristics of each group I suggest consulting Appendix 2 of the original publication located here.

Click on the play button to listen to the songs.

Blue-diademed Motmot (Momotus momota lessonni)

Including the following subspecies: M. m. goldmani and coeruliceps

Distribution: from extreme southern Mexico to southwestern Panama.

Blue-diademed Motmot – Costa Rica

Link to the original file.

Blue-diademed Motmot © Gary Ashley

Highland (Andean) Motmot (Momotus momota aequatorialis)

Inlcuding: M. m. chlorolaemus

Distribution: Andes from NC Colombia to NE Bolivia.

Highland (Andean) Motmot – Colombia

Link to the original file.

Highland Motmot © David Cook

Whooping Motmot (Momotus momota subrufescens)

Including the following subspecies: M. m.osgoodi, argenticinctus and spatha.

Distribution: C Panama to NC Venezuela and the Magdalena valley of Colombia; SE Ecuador and extreme NW Peru.

M. m. argenticinctus – Ecuador

Link to the original file.

Trinidad Motmot (Momotus momota bahamensis)

Distribution: Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad Motmot – Trinidad and Tobago

Link to the original file.

Amazonia Motmot (Momotus momota momota)

Including: M. m. microstephanus and several others outside the scope of the study.

Distribution: Venezuela (S of the Orinoco) and the Guianas S through the entire Amazon basin to extreme N Argentina and Paraguay.

M. m. microstephanus – Ecuador

Link to the original file.

Sound files from Xeno-Canto and the Macaulay Library.

Photos under Creative Commons License.

Neotropical Birding Tours » Splits

Tapaculo Mystery Solved

The Blue-crowned Motmot complex could be split into five species