Three Chamaeza Antthrushes in Eastern Brazil (Formicariidae) ’
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The Condor 94:110-l 16 0 The CooperOrnithological Society 1992 THREE CHAMAEZA ANTTHRUSHES IN EASTERN BRAZIL (FORMICARIIDAE) ’ EDWIN 0. WILLIS Departamento de Zoologia, UniversidadeEstadual Paul&a, 13500 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Abstract. There are three, not two, sibling antthrushesof the genusChamaeza (For- micariidae)in easternBrazil. One is the short-tailed,large, pale-billed, lower montaneC. campanisona,with a spottedthroat, dark forehead, and a longsong ending in severalgrunts. The secondis the long-tailed,small, dark-billed,montane and southernC. ruficauda,with barred undertail covertsand a short upscalesong. The third is medium-tailed,small, dark-billed,midmontane, with a longupscale song like that of midmontaneso-called “ruj- cauda” in Colombiaand Venezuela.This northerngroup is like the third Brazilianspecies in proportionsbut not in coloration,so is consideredto be the separatespecies C. turdina. The third Brazilian bird is probablyC. meruloidesVigors 1825, basedon an 1826 color plate;type specimenswere sold at auctionand have disappeared.It has a reddishcrown and olive-brownback as in C. campanisonabut reddishforehead and tail asin C. rujicauda; thethroat is unspottedbut the restof theunderparts are as in C. campanisona.C. meruloides and C. turdina form a vocally similar superspecies. Key words: Brazilian forests:Chamaeza; conservation; Formicariidae; holotypes;muse- urns. INTRODUCTION York (AMNH), the British Museum (Natural Recording birds in southeasternBrazil in 197 1, History) at Tring (BM), the Museum Alexander Paul Schwartz was surprised to find a different Koenig in Bonn, and from the Museum Hum- song in Chamaeza rujicauda (Formicariidae), an boldt in Berlin. antthrush said to be the same as a bird he knew RESULTS well in Venezuela (pers. comm.) He further noted that a bird he recorded and collected at the Bor- SONGS aceia Zoological Station of the University of S&o Sick (1985) describesthe three types of songsin Paulo, thinking it C. campanisona, had a voice eastern Brazil. One is a long series of Otus-like like Venezuelan C. “rujicauda.” He was unable whistles near 1.0 kHz, which end in a few low to follow up theseobservations, while Sick (1985) grunts (“ku ku ku ku,” Bertoni 190 1). Figure 1(A) was only able to add that there were three and showsthe end of a 13-set, 90-note song, includ- not two types of song in southeastern Brazilian ing two terminal grunts. The type specimen of Chamaeza. C. campanisona (Lichtenstein 1823) examined When I came to eastern Brazil in December in Bonn courtesy of the Museum Humboldt, is 1974, the first Chamaeza found, at 1,350 m on of this widespread lower montane species. the serra de Caparao in eastern Minas Gerais, The second type of song, a rising short trill, is sang like C. “ruficauda,” which I had studied in a familiar voice on mountaintops and southward Venezuela with Paul Schwartz. Here I show that and is associated(Belton 1985) with C. rujicauda the Caparao and Boractia birds belong to a pre- (Cabanis and Heine 1859). Figure l(B) shows a viously unrecognized third species in eastern 3.6-set song of 50 notes, given at twice the rate Brazil, different from C. ruficauda and C. cam- in C. campanisona; it rises from 950 to 1,350 panisona, and that Venezuelan “rujicauda” are Hz or 8 Hz per note. Hellmayr (in Cory and also different. Hellmayr 1924) examined the type specimen, mounted in the Museum Heineanum at Halber- METHODS stadt, Germany, and mentions size and plumage I checked specimens at the Museum of Zoology characterstypical of the montane bird. After no of the University of Sao Paulo (MZUSP), the answer to several letters, I visited Halberstadt American Museum of Natural History in New but was unable to seethe bird becausethe curator was away; I did meet his assistant,Rudiger Holz, who later sent information on the type specimen ’ ’ Received3 May 1991. Accepted2 October1991. that confirms Hellmayr’s account. ill01 BRAZILIAN ANTTHRUSHES 111 The third song is a series like that of C. cam- are reddish brown, including the tail, which has panisona but longer, ascending, and without ter- hardly any pale tips. On each buff under tail co- minal grunts. Figure 1(D) showsthe end of a song vert, there are three or four dark bars. Buff stain- of 165 notes and 22.8 set, rising from 1,250 to ing on the breast sometimes extends to the un- 1,600 Hz at a regular 2.1 Hz per note. As in other spotted throat, as well as to the sides of the Charnaeza, the first notes are fainter; but so are abdomen. The sides of the abdomen are heavily the last ones. A sonagram by J. Vielliard (Sick streaked,there are three dark stripes (one medial 1985:54), said to be C. campanisona, is actually and two lateral) per feather, but some flank feath- of the third species;songs are said to vary from ers under the wings have only one pale stripe on 25 to 40 seconds,longer than the 15-set songs the outer vane. Hellmayr overlooked thesefeath- of C. campanisona. This song is associatedwith ers,which are like thoseof C. campanisona.There the midmontane bird Schwartzcollected at Bora- is no black blotch on the forehead. The barred c&a (MZUSP 61988). It is like that of Venezu- undertail coverts and long tail suggestthat it may elan midmontane birds of the subspeciesC. “Y.” be related to the bar-bellied C. mollissima of the chionogaster.These Venezuelan birds and their Andean temperate-zone forests. It weighs 70- Colombian relatives, C. “r.” turdina, differ in 75.5 g in Rio Grande do Sul (Belton 1985). plumage from birds that sing like them in Brazil, The third species, which occupies midmon- as well as from Brazilian C. rujicauda. tane wet forests of eastern Brazil, looks like a collage of the other two. It is a small, medium- COLOR AND SIZE DIFFERENCES tailed bird with a blackish subterminal tail band C. c. campanisona of the eastern Brazilian low- that is barely visible and extensive pale tips, best lands and lower montane zones has a short tail seen from below. Similar to C. rujicauda, the (Table l), with a pale tip and blackish subter- rump and tail are reddish, the bill small and dark, minal bar on most tail feathers. There are small the forehead reddish with no black blotch, and black speckleson the white throat. A large black the throat white or buffish with few or no dark spot on the forehead and a pale, large bill (Table spots. The upper and under parts are otherwise 2) are characteristic.As noted by Cory and Hell- as in C. campanisona,so that it is normally clas- mayr (1924) many dark flank feathers have a sified with C. c. campanisona in museums. In pale streak on the outer web but not on the inner voice and in bill, tarsus, and wing, as well as web. Also noted by Hellmayr, in a brief comment midmontane habitat, it is like Venezuelan chio- on Bertoni (1901) some central flank and belly nogasterand Colombian turdina, but these have feathersare three-striped, with pale areason both spotted throats, mostly three-striped flank feath- inner and outer webs between the stripes (Cory ers, and barred undertail coverts. They are also and Hellmayr 1924). There sometimes are a few much darker and redder above, like C. rujicauda, faint dark bars on the buff undertail coverts. The and have shorter tails than any but C. campani- crown is redder than the olive-brown back and sona.(All northern Andean forms are short-tailed, tail. Subspeciesin Paraguay and Bolivia are rath- compared to eastern forms at similar elevations.) er similar; subspeciesfrom the northern Andes Birds of average mass 69 g, cited for C. “cam- to Guyana are much darker (including the bill), panisona” by Sick (1985:533), are far too light but the foreheadis always black and the tail short. for that speciesand probably are the midmon- Only two MZUSP specimens from Ceara (serra tane eastern form. de Baturite) and a few young birds (as AMNH With rare exceptions, eastern birds with wing 77 118 1 from Argentina) lack the black forehead, chord exceeding tail length between central tail and even these are speckle-throated and short- feathersby 30 mm or more are C. campanisona, tailed. Masses are 93-102 g in Rio Grande do ones with 20-30 mm difference are the mid- Sul (Belton 1985), 9 1.8 g in Corrientes, 89-90 g montane species,and ones with lo-20 mm dif- in Bolivia, 64-69 g in northern Venezuela, and ference are C. rujkauda. Tail length and color 104-l 12 g on Cerro Urutani in southeastern charactersshould be verified, however. Venezuela or northwestern Brazil. C. rujcauda of southeasternBrazil and north- BEHAVIOR AND HABITAT eastern Argentina (J. C. Chebez, pers. comm.) is All speciesin this genus walk on the forest floor, a long-tailed though short-winged and small spe- roots, and logs, pounding their short tails down- cies, with small and blackish bill. The upperparts ward, and peck insects from the ground, debris, 112 EDWIN 0. WILLIS TIME IN SECONDS FIGURE 1. (A) End of songof Chamaeza campanisona,showing two final grunts(bridge over ribeirao Espirito Santo, 500 m, 21”37’S, 48”33’W, Fazenda Tamandua forest, Matlo, Sao Paulo, 21 December 1982); (B) Song of C. rujicuudu(1,875 m, road to Sgo Jose dos Alpes, 22”43’S, 45”28’W, Campos do Jordao State Park, SLo Paulo, 2 1 July 1982); (C) “wh ‘h ‘h ert”‘ loud roll, same bird; (D) End of song of C. meruloides(Alto do Ribeira State Park, Km 9, 820 m, 24”24’S, 48”36’W, 29 January 1987).