8 BIRDS & BIRDKEEPING January 8 2020 • Cage & Aviary Birds Expert advice • Opinion • Getting started • Species profiles • Key tips • Leading fanciers Canaries: Finches: Parrots: Budgerigars: Opinion: British: Page 9 Page 10 Pages 10 Page 12 Page 15 Page 16 Brazilian reintro makes history As forest loss in Brazil is making all the wrong headlines, ROSEMARY LOW shares good news about a special bird CONSERVATION dramatically in the 1970s when the army planted huge areas of sugar cane EPTEMBER 25 2019 was a for biofuel. This had a disastrous effect historic day in the on birdlife. The last sightings of the conservation of South Pernambuco pygmy owl (Glaucidium American fauna. A species mooreorum) occurred in 1990 (and this that had become extinct in bird was not even described as a Sthe wild was reintroduced to its former separate species until 2002.) The range for the first time ever. That cryptic treehunter (Cichlocolaptes species was the Alagoas curassow mazarbarnetti) was last seen in 2007 (Pauxi mitu, also known as Mitu mitu). and the Alagoas foliage-gleaner This species is, (Philydor novaesi) or was, endemic in 2011. All are to the Atlantic now presumed rainforest of NE By 2019 there extinct. Brazil, a region Luís Fábio that has lost 98 were 80 pure birds Silveira is the per cent of its curator of the Bird original forest. At derived from the Collection of the one time the Zoology Museum Atlantic forest three founders of the University of extended from the São Paulo eastern coast of Brazil, reaching to (MZUSP), and scientific director there. small parts of Paraguay and Argentina. He specialises in the systematics and Alagoas curassow: one eightieth of the world population can be seen in this photograph Only 14 per cent of this forest persists, conservation of Neotropical birds. Photo: Prof Luís Fábio Silveira Inset: the remarkable private aviculturist Beto Polezel, 29, of São and this region is the most heavily Currently he is researching birds in the Paulo is one of only three people with stock of the Alagoas curassow Photo: Rosemary Low populated in Brazil, with 70 per cent Pernambuco Centre of Endemism, (140 million people) of the population which includes Alagoas. the knife-edge of extinction. Then along subjected to genetic management and trogon: a large colourful forest bird. living there. It also harbours about 900 came a well-known aviculturist, Pedro by 2019 there were 80 pure birds It was very encouraging that the bird species. In Brazil, 234 are Targets for reintroduction Nardelli, who had an exceptional derived from the three founders. owners of the sugar mills were interested threatened with extinction, mostly due He is involved with the captive breeding collection of Brazilian birds. He was In 2001, Nigel Collar, Britain’s most in endangered birds and in giving them to deforestation. and reintroduction of the Alagoas especially interested in the cracids revered ornithologist and taxonomist (with legal protection on their properties. These statistics were quoted by curassow, Brazilian merganser (Mergus (curassows and guans). In 1979 he went BirdLife International), suggested to Luís Another positive step is that environmental Professor Luís Fábio Silveira, speaking octosetaceus), great-billed seed finch to Alagoas and captured five individuals that he should go to Alagoas to identify fines have been diverted to the creation of at the joint meeting of the British (Sporophila maximiliani) and golden of the curassow. Two years later it was and survey the richest forest fragments. private reserves. Since 2018, more than Ornithologists’ Club and the Neotropical conure (Guaruba guarouba). believed extinct in the wild. Funded by the São Paulo Research 2,500ha have been protected, with 80 per Bird Club on October 26 2019, at the This distinguished ornithologist Nardelli reared three or four young Foundation (FAPESP), these fragments cent of endemic or threatened bird species Natural History Museum in London. spoke about the curassow, which was per year from three birds. Two never were surveyed to find reintroduction sites of the region residing in them. Alagoas is the second smallest believed extinct until its rediscovery in bred. Of course, the species suffered for targeted species and So it was that last September three Brazilian state, located in the north-east the 1950s. Curassows are big, meaty from an extreme genetic bottleneck, and even previously pairs of Alagoas curassows were region: the extreme eastern part when birds, not unlike turkeys, to which they from hybridisation in captivity. Since undescribed reintroduced to their original home. you look at the map of Brazil. are related. Hunting and habitat loss 1999 (when there were 44 in two species. These The males carry transmitters so Deforestation there increased devastated its populations until it was on collections), all individuals have been include a new that they can be radio-tracked. Fittingly, this reserve has been named after Pedro Nardelli, who sadly died a month before the release. In recent months, the scale of forest loss in Brazil has caused deep concern worldwide, not only among Photo: Prof Luís Fábio Silveira Photo: environmentalists but also with many members of the public who usually show little interest in such matters. It is therefore heartening to learn of the work of dedicated scientists and conservationists in Brazil who are not only already working to save the most threatened endemic species, but who are also considering cryopreservation of their tissues and captive breeding for insectivorous birds. Razor-billed curassow: this widespread, closely related Amazonian species differs most obviously in having a white-tipped tail. Inset: Professor Luís Fábio Silveira has a keen Rosemary Low’s website is: www. interest in the fate of several critically endangered Brazilian species Photo: Prof Luís Fábio Silveira Note the distinctive greyish white patch of bare skin around this Alagoas curassow’s ear rosemarylow.co.uk.