Birds of the Atlantic Forest: richness, status,composition, endemism, and conservation

Author(s)

Luciano Moreira Lima

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB)
• Defense date: 2014-01-21

Examining board members

Luis Fábio Silveira; Vítor de Queiroz Piacentini; Henrique Bastos Rajão Reis

• Advisor: Luis Fábio Silveira

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots, yet it is one of the most threatened domains in the planet. Birds are among the vertebrates with the greatest species richness, endemism and number of threatened species of this domain. The Atlantic Forest may be considered the domain in which the avifauna has been studied the most, but this ornithological knowledge is fragmented and highly dispersed, which makes it underused. Some reviews of the bird species occurring in the Atlantic Forest are available in the literature, but a comparative analysis of their results reveals many discrepancies and a lack of systematic methodology among most of them. In addition, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the ornithological knowledge of the Atlantic Forest, demonstrating the need for a new review that gathers the current knowledge about the avifauna of the Atlantic Forest. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to define which are the species, sub-species and endemisms of the Atlantic Forest avifauna, to gather information about species occurrence and habitat preference and to give an updated overview of their conservation status. I analyzed the distribution patterns of each species and/or subspecies within the Atlantic Forest and described their habitat and seasonality. Data was gathered from the scientific literature, distribution maps, museum specimens and field work. The Atlantic Forest avifauna is composed of 861 species, with 464 of them being polytypic and accounting for, 608 subspecies, thus amounting 1035 specific and subspecific taxons grouped into 26 orders and 80 families. The majority of the species were found to be resident whereas a noteworthy 16% of them perform seasonal movements. More than half of species occur in forest habitats, while a significant portion is associated with other habitats including natural open habitats and anthropic environments, humid areas and costal marine environments. The Atlantic Forest avifauna is characterized by a high level of endemism, including 27 genera, 213 species and 162 sub-species. The updated overview about the conservation status of the Atlantic Forest birds reiterates their critical situation and reveals that the number of threatened or extinct species in this domain is much greater than previously reported in national and international lists of threatened species. The main challenges and opportunities to future research efforts on the Atlantic Forest avifauna are the need for a taxonomic review of the large number of sub-species, especially the many endemic and threatened taxons; a review of the endemic areas within the domain; the use of distribution patterns of the Atlantic Forest birds to analyze the biogeographic affinities among the different regions of the domain; to gather information about the occurrence of migratory species and their seasonal patterns; and re-evaluation of the a current conservation policies based on the national red list of threatened species (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/17032-7 - Birds of the Atlantic Rainforest: species richness, composition, endemism and knowledge gaps
• Grantee: Luciano Moreira Lima
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master