Bulletin Zoölogisch Museum UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Vol. 15 No. 13 1997 Notes on distribution, conservation, and taxonomy OF birds from the Cape Verde Islands, including records of six species new to the archipelago Cornelis J. Hazevoet Key words: Cape Verde Islands, Aves, distribution, conservation, taxonomy. Abstract Recent data on the distribution of birds in the Cape Verde Islands are presented, including records of six species new to the archipelago, viz. Pintail Anas acuta, Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla, Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Red-rumped Swallow Hirundo daurica, African Sand Martin Riparia paludicola, and Song Thrush Turdus philomelos. Also included are data on extentions in range and time within the islands of migrant visitors as well as observations of rare and threatened resident species. Extralimital records of migrant Cape Verde seabirds are summarized and news and views relating to the conservation of threatened endemic taxa are discussed. In addition, some recent studies bearing on the systematics of endemic Procellarids are reviewed. INTRODUCTION the to be and visits among species expected during migra- This is the second supplement to The birds of the Cape tion seasons will continue to be worthwhile in this respect. Verde Islands (Hazevoet 1995), an earlier update being Records of new species reported herein have been scruti- presented by Hazevoet etal. (1996). With few exceptions, nized by the author in consultation with members of the the present contribution concerns data collected in 1996. It Dutch rarities committee. includes reports of six species new to the archipelago, viz. In 1996, some remarkableevents took place in relation Pintail Anas acuta, Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla, to the occurrence of migrant birds in the Cape Verde Swallow Islands. the oth- Snipe Gallinago gallinago, Red-rumped Hirundo Early in the year, heavy rains occurred on daurica,African Sand Martin Riparia paludicola,. and Song erwise arid island of Sal, causing the flooding of ribeiras Thrush Turdus philomelos. Other additions to the Cape and the formation of a temporary lake near the mouth of Verde avifauna have been reported by Hazevoet (1996a) Ribeira da Madama. This attracted several rare species, and Hazevoet al. of ducks et (1996). This brings the total number including and gulls, offering an unsual sight on this bird the islands desert island that birds species reliably reported from at 154, and demonstrating some may react two introduced that have establised when favourable conditions excluding species may rapidly occur, luring even in i.e. Parakeet these populations recent years, Ring-necked species seldom or never seen there before to Psittacula krameri and Village Weaver Ploceus cucullatus. remote oceanic islands. By mid April, however, the 'lake' The number of birds known to have occurred in the and the island returned A Cape was gone dry as ever. compara- Verde Islands is only modest but, since interest in the ble situation was observed on Santiago in November in it is when filled islands has grown considerably recent years, 1988, heavy showers the Pedra Badejo expected that 'new' species will continue to be reported. lagoons with water, mud, and debris, attracting unusually More specifically, several passerines, commonly wintering large numbers of waders (Hazevoet 1992a). in West Africa but still unrecorded in the Cape Verdes, are An influx of migrant hirundines occurred on Sal during 90 the second week of April. For days the island was invaded makers in conservation biology (Hazevoet 1996b). by hundreds of Swallows Hirundo rustica and lesser num- Because Nunn & Zino's (in press) study did not include bers of House Martins Delichon urbica. Accompanying P. feae sensu stricto (i.e. the Cape Verde taxon) but only these at least Swallow H. daurica P. feae were one Red-rumped sensu lato (by way of a sample of deserta from the and several African Sand Martins Riparia paludicola. Terra Deserta islets), the taxonomic status and phylogenetic Boa, an agricultural area in the north of the island, offered relationship of feae (Cape Verde Is.) and deserta (Deserta special attraction to the birds, with large numbers feeding Is.) remains unsettled. Although feae and deserta have over the fields and using the dry corn as a roost. Within a often been considered morphologically indistinguishable week, however, the majority of these hirundines had left (i.e. only differing in the means of certain morphometric the island and numbers were back to normal for the timeof dimensions, mainly bill-depth), a further cladistic analysis year, with a few seen every now and then. It is remarkable should include both taxa, in addition to the other North that such large mixed flocks occur far off continental Atlantic Pterodroma petrels, in order to clarify their relative Africa. position within this apparently monophyletic group. Thanks to the efforts of two dedicated Dutch bird Bretagnolle (1995) made a phenetic assessment of watchers, Theo Bakker and Klaas van Dijk, who visited the similarity in vocalizations and morphometries in the islands in search of endemics and to conduct wader ‘Pterodroma mollis complex' and concludedthat two 'poly- counts (see Bakker & van Dijk 1996, van Dijk & Bakker typic' species should be recognized, viz. P. mollis and P. 1997), the first recoveries of colour marked birds in the feae, the latter including feae, deserta and madeira. As Cape Verde Islands were obtained. Details are given Bretagnolle (1995) did not discriminate between pie- under the relevant species entries in 'Notes on distribu- siomorphic and apomorphic character states and neither tion'. Also in 'Notes distribution' his data aid incorporated on are employed outgroup comparison, may perhaps extralimital records (both published and unpublished) of in diagnosing different taxa but, as he duly admitted, his migratory Cape Verde Procellarids. Topics relating to the study "did not greatly improve the understanding of the conservation of threatened Cape Verde birds are dis- systematics of the P. mollis complex". cussed in 'Notes on conservation'and some recent studies Austin (1996) conducted a phylogenetic analysis of 19 the of on phylogeny Procellarids, bearing upon the system- taxa of Puffinus shearwaters, with Fulmarus glacialis as atics of Verde reviewed in 'Notes the mitochondrial b Cape endemics, are on outgroup, based on cytochrome gene taxonomy'. sequences. As in the Pterodromapetrels, several tradition- ally recognized 'polytypic' species were shown to be para- NOTES ON TAXONOMY phyletic. Austin (1996) employed 'specific' and 'subspecif- A recent phylogenetic study of Pterodroma petrels using ic' nomenclature without commenting on the paraphyly of mitochondrial & Zino these traditional As the inclusion of taxa in cytochrome bgene sequences (Nunn groupings. any in press) showed that traditional classification of North higher taxonomic category (including so-called 'polytypic Atlantic taxa as close relatives of southern P. mollis (either biological species') should imply a hypothesis of monophy- the level members so-called nomenclatural at 'subspecies' or as of a ly, certain consequences must be drawn 'superspecies') accounts for a paraphyletic taxon. In two from Austin's (1996) study, providing that we want taxo- most four Atlantic taxa nomic and nomenclature parsimonious trees, North (hasitata, allocations to have any meaning cahow, feae, madeira), clustered on a clade separated at all, a preamble perhaps not supported by followers of from P. mollis by another clade made up of southern taxa the isolation view of species. These nomenclatural (magentae, incerta, lessonii, macroptera). These two changes do not merely concern ranking issues (such as clades constituted the sister of P. the latter the group mollis, the 'splitting' and 'lumping' practices encouraged by basal to the others. This rather different isolation view of but rather the eliminationof being implies a species) para- phylogenetic and zoogeographical history than traditional phyletic taxa. For instance, the phylogeny of Puffinus puffi- classification suggests and shows that it is no longer ten- nus, P. yelkouan, and P. mauretanicus (formerly treated as able to asign P. feae and P. madeira to the ‘P. mollis 'subspecies' of a 'polytypic' species P. puffinus) shows that species group' (cf. Hazevoet 1995, 1996b). The above elevating ('splitting') yelkouan to species rank because of example offers just another case in which traditional allo- its 'sufficiently' differentiated morphology but at the same cation of time 'subspecies' (or species) into a 'polytypic' species retaining ('lumping') mauretanicus as a 'subspecies' (or 'superspecies') has given rise to a paraphyletic (i.e. in a 'polytypic' species P. yelkouan, as advocated by Bourne non-historical) taxon. Such long-standing taxonomic prac- etal. (1988) and Wink ef a/. (1993), is just as mis- tice has been based of the traditional inclusion these on phenetic assessments similarity leading as of taxa in a para- in combination with speculations about the 'potential' abili- phyletic 'polytypic' P. puffinus. Because all these taxa are ty for gene exchange, in order to fulfil the requirements of allopatric, considering them conspecific in whatever combi- the isolation (Mayrian or 'biological') concept of species. nation merely boils down to speculations about their This has driven many unique and rare island forms into the 'potential' ability for gene exchange. However, whether or of the allocation which not these taxa