4 new species of birds discovered in Amazon (1 Viewer)

Today at the local newspaper there was an article about an expedition to Amazon, which led up to 4 new bird species discoveries.

The article (Portuguese) is this one: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u320157.shtml

Two trips to Purus/Madeira moist forests were made this year and many new species were discovered. The region is believed to be the most diverse of Amazon, and, before those trips, was practically unexplored. 4 new species of birds, 3 of mammals (including a monkey) and many new arachnids were discovered (actually they believe 98% of the arachnids seen there were new). The problem is that the region is highly threatened by projects of contructions of a road, a pipeline, a hidroeletric stations in Madeira river, illegal wood extraction, agriculture and cattle farming.

The article didn't give details about what kind of birds they were, especially because they are not new species officially. The expeditionist ornithologist, Mario Cohn-Haft, told that AT LEAST four of the birds they've seen are newly discovered, two of them being endemics to that region.

There are also two more articles in BBC Brazil: http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/08/070815_amazonia_usinas_dg.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/08/070815_amazonia_especies_dg.shtml

This is exciting news, Joao. Couldn't read the docs, since I don't know Portuguese, but the pictures were interesting.

Jocateme, I believe most of our members are unable to read/understand Portuguese.

Are there any articles you know of which are written in English?

Hi Larry and Lisa,

I looked for English articles everywhere in the net, but couldn't find. Also found strange that BBC Brazil had this article but BBC UK had not.

Anyways, here's a translation from the first article made by me (sorry for any errors):

"Expedition tames almost unexplored area of the Amazon

Two expeditions to the region between Purus and Madeira rivers this year showed that this area of forest, probably the most biodiverse of all Amazon ecological divisions, really deserves the title.

This region, with about 40 million ha, represents less than 5% of the Amazon Rainforest, but in only two trips, scientists found at least four new species of birds, three of mammals and some sets of ten of unknown arachnids. The stuff, collected between April and May, and then in July, shows a biodiversity threatened by occupation planes.

Still predominantly without impact, Purus-Madeira interflúvio [interflúvio means the region between two rivers] is in the aiming of projects like the pavement of BR-319 road, which connects Porto Velho (Rondônia state) and Manaus (Amazonas state) and the construction of a pipeline between Urucu (Amazonas) and Porto Velho - both of the projects pass through the area. Also threatening the region, there are the construction of hidroeletric stations in Madeira river, the increasing extraction of wood in southeastern Amazonas and the advance of the agroindustry, especially of the soya, and of cattle farming.

Threatened richness

'The set is assembled to destrow a small area, until now unknown and believed to have a huge biodiversity and endemism potential', said the ornithologist Mario Cohn-Haft, of Inpa (National Institute of Amazonian Research), which led the expedition of Geoma project.

The six weeks the groups kept in the forest show there really is something to lose. 'We have found species which not only had never been observed, but apparently only exist in that region', said Colin-Haft. The collected animals are now being analyzed by biologists to see if they really are new species. After the confirmation, the discoveries will be published in scientific magazines.

Cohn-Haft already says, though, that at least four of the birds he has seen are new species, two of them being endemics. 'I had already seen these birds in former expeditions, but only now I managed to find samples. It is a sufficiently big series to describe.'

The importance of the finds gets bigger when you consider that birds are the most well-known group by biologists. The discovery of so many new animals, according to the researcher, works like a termometer of that region's diversity. Still, Colin-Haft believes that in some years the number of species described in Amazon will double.

Among the mammals, the primatologists believe having seen at least one new species of monkey. It was also collected a Tamarin which probably is a new subspecies and a primate considered a "rediscovery" of the science.

It's about an animal already described in the literature, but that had never been seen. 'Its existance had begun to be unbelieved, it was supposed that it could be just an extraordinary individual, but now we've found a whole population of them', said the researcher.

Still among the mammals, the biologists bet on a squirrel and 'gatiara' (nocturnal mammal) as new species.

The animal group that might bring the most news, though, are the arachnids. They are still so unknown that the expectation is that 95% [I wrote 98% on the first post, sorry] of the animals found are new species.

The presence of so many different animals in a relatively small area is explained because the region has various types of habitats. In the same area there is typical forest as well as floodable varzeas, small mountains, bamboos and fields. 'All of this in a small interflúvio threatened by every possible projects', sais Cohn-Haft."

Hope this helps the understanding.

Joao, thank you so much for translating for us. This is what strikes me as very important "Still, Colin-Haft believes that in some years the number of species described in Amazon will double."
It would be amazing if they were able to discover even more on return trips.
Will this make the conservationists even more determined to keep the area as is?

Lisa W said:

Joao, thank you so much for translating for us. This is what strikes me as very important "Still, Colin-Haft believes that in some years the number of species described in Amazon will double."
It would be amazing if they were able to discover even more on return trips.
Will this make the conservationists even more determined to keep the area as is?

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Hi Lisa,

I really hope so. Destructing an area like this would be a huge loss. Unfortunately I can't do much more than just keeping my fingers crossed hoping for conscious people to engage in avoiding such a serious problem.

On the other hand, I'm glad to hear that a knowledgeable person, such as Colin-Haft still is optimistic about the situation.

One of the species is a nighthawk of some sort, would like to know what are the other 3.

Yes, I agree with Octavio.

One of them looked like a Nighthawk (or any other Caprimulgid) by the photo on the newspaper (not in the webpage, though).

Excellent work Joao and huge thanks for spending the time to translate. I for one, look forward with fascination for any developments. Any pro-active conservation measures you and your fellow countrymen are planning, please let us know. One-Voice should be heard against the planned destruction of such a fabulously rich area as the Amazon.
Good luck - Tim

One of the species is a potoo (genus Nyctibius). The article says this photo below is from one of the four species discovered.... but this looks a lot like a Nyctibius leucopterus, doesn't it???

I couldn't find the gallery before, just found it after following your link. And you are right Octavio. It's a Potoo. This is the caption for photo #5:

"This is one of the species the scientists believe to be new and will yet be described: a Potoo of genus Nyctibius."

About the similarities with Nyctibius leucopterus, you are totally right again. After researching a bit, looks like this new species had been already mistaken with N. leucopterus by the same Colin-Haft in 1993. Just see this: http://www.ao.com.br/ao89.htm, in Atualidades Ornitologicas magazine site about the rediscovery of N. leucopterus after 177 years. Scroll down until you reach a green text regarding the potoo. This is probably one of the birds Colin-Haft mentioned when saying: 'I had already seen these birds in former expeditions, but only now I managed to find samples. It is a sufficiently big series to describe.'

Here's the entire gallery of the trip on BBC Brazil:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/especial/2135_amazonia/

Thanks, Joao for posting the link to the photos. Great finds, admittedly some gave me the willies - that beetle was huge!

jocateme said:

"This is one of the species the scientists believe to be new and will yet be described: a Potoo of genus Nyctibius."

About the similarities with Nyctibius leucopterus, you are totally right again. After researching a bit, looks like this new species had been already mistaken with N. leucopterus by the same Colin-Haft in 1993. Just see this: http://www.ao.com.br/ao89.htm, in Atualidades Ornitologicas magazine site about the rediscovery of N. leucopterus after 177 years. Scroll down until you reach a green text regarding the potoo. This is probably one of the birds Colin-Haft mentioned when saying: 'I had already seen these birds in former expeditions, but only now I managed to find samples. It is a sufficiently big series to describe.'

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It has been known for several years that the Amazonian "White-winged Potoos" likely represented an undescribed taxon (e.g. there are some clear differences in measurements). If this taxon "only" should be considered a new subspecies or should be considered an entirely new species is something I will refrain from commenting on here. Actually, the "Amazonian White-winged" has been seen by quite a few birders (it is uncommon to rare, but still fairly regular north of Manaus, Brazil, in Caxiuaña in the Belém region, Brazil, and near Iquitos, Peru), while extremely few have seen the already described White-winged Potoo from the Atlantic forest in eastern Brazil.

Very interesting! The bird already described has less sights than the non-described one. Thanks for the info, Rasmus.

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Jocateme has already translated the article, but for future reference, you can have any text or website translated at:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

I've just seen in another article that two other new birds are a Tyrannid and a Corvid, both endemic to that region. Look at this passage:

Encontraram quatro novas aves. Duas delas – um pássaro da família do bem-te-vi e um tipo de gralha – são endêmicas.

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A translation for that would be:

Four new birds were found. Two of them - a bird of the Great Kiskadee family and a type of Jay - are endemic.

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