Tumbes Tyrant Tumbezia salvini Tumbezia salvini is one of the least known of the Tumbesian Endemic Area (EBA) endemics2. Known, prior to 1965, from just six unprotected localities in Peru, from Tumbes to La Libertad; in that year it was reported from El Angolo Hunting Reserve, in the southern part of the North-west Peru Biosphere Reserve3. This area is known to harbour 30 restricted-range, five threatened and five near-threatened species1. Since 1988, when the area was first visited by the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Tumbezia has been recorded in south-east Angolo (04°24'S 80°45'W). The photographs, shown here, are from this area and were taken in August 1992 and November 1994. The is considered near-threatened, principally due to habitat destruction2,4. At El Angolo, it has principally been observed in riparian thickets between 540–800 m and in open dry forest at 650–700 m. A full description of the habitat found in this area is contained in Centro de Datos para la Conservación3. Tumbezia has also been twice observed along the road south of El Angolo at 300–400 m, in very dry Prosopis pallida open forest. These habitat preferences appear to match those described for the species in Best & Kessler2. Tumbezia is usually found perched on branches c. 1.5 m above ground. In El Angolo, it is an uncommon to relatively common species, easier to find during the dry season. This could be due to local movements, but, most probably, it is because visibility decreases when the vegetation becomes greener and denser during the rany season. Tumbezia exhibits behaviourial similarities with Vermilion Flycatcher Pyrocephalus rubinus, with which it shares habitat in El Angolo. Pyrocephalus appears to be more numerous than Tumbezia throughout the area; both species occupy the same habitats and vegetational strata, employ similar hunting techniques and are thus presumably in direct competition. I have observed the two species to displace each other on several occasions, apparently without one becoming more dominant. Both are highly territorial and readily defend their territories should it be invaded by the other species. Populations of Tumbezia salvini appear to be secure in El Angolo Hunting Reserve, and probably also in the little-surveyed Cerros de Amotape National Park, to the north. Few threats exist to both areas. There is little timber removal in either area and is performed mostly for subsistence purposes by the scattered human population, and in close proximity to settlements. Habitat destruction in the North-west Peru Biosphere Reserve (which also includes the Cerros de Amotape National Park and Tumbes Reserved Zone, as well as El Angolo) is difficult to establish, as most occurs in heavy undergrowth, as a result of extensive cattle and goat grazing. Elsewhere, within the range of Tumbezia salvini, threats caused by human or economic pressures, are liable to be greater to the species.

References 1. Barrio, J. (in prep.) El Angolo: Eden for Tumbesian endemics. 2. Best, B. J. & Kessler, M. (1995) Biodiversity and conservation in Tumbesian Ecuador and Peru. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. 3. Centro de Datos para la Conservación (1995) Las Areas Naturales Protegidas del Perú. Reporte 5: Coto de Caza El Angolo. La Molina, Perú: CDC – Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. 4. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. P., Krabbe, N., Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened of the Americas: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Book. Cambridge, UK: International Council for Bird Preservation.

Javier Barrio Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, 303 Newins-Ziegler Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Yucatan Caprimulgus badius Yucatan Nightjar Caprimulgus badius, as its name suggests, is largely endemic to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula where it is generally common to fairly common in scrubby and brushy woodland, and forest-edge habitats1,5. As with many New World , knowledge of this species’ , voice and distribution has entailed the unravelling of misconceptions and perpetuated errors. Although traditonally considered conspecific with Tawny-collared Nightjar C. salvini of north-east Mexico1, the two are clearly separate species with distinct vocalisations and plumage4,5, a fact recently acknowledged by the AOU2. Confusion has also surrounded the voice of the Yucatan Nightjar. For many years, its song and that of the widely sympatric Yucatan Poorwill yucatanicus have been transposed in the literature3,6,7, and it was only in the mid-1980s that this mistake was realised4,5,8! It is now known that Yucatan Nightjar (not the poorwill) sings a loud, clear puc ree-u-reeeu, recalling the song of Chuck-will’s-widow C. carolinensis. Conversely, Yucatan Poorwill (not the nightjar) sings a loud, slightly resonant whirr. Both vocalisations are quite distinct from the abrupt, clipped chi-wihw of the Tawny-collared Nightjar4,5. Whilst Yucatan Nightjar appears to be largely resident, some move south in winter to Belize and northern Honduras, where a roosting male was photographed in mangroves near Tela on 15 December 1995, the only record for Honduras. Although the AOU1 indicated that this form was resident in Belize, this may have been the result of confusion over the transposed songs (see above). The few published records from Belize are during January–March9 (winter and migration). I know of no confirmed summer records from Belize, although breeding can be expected in the extreme north. Old reports from Guatemala, perpetuated by AOU1, are also in error and refer to misidentified specimens of Mexican Whip-poor-will C. arizonae5,11, and a report from Nicaragua10 refers to Tawny-collared Nightjar1,5. The difficulty of detecting silent nightjars, combined with limited night fieldwork, means that this species’ winter movements have been interpolated from a paucity of data, and the winter (and breeding) range of the Yucatan Nightjar is probably still incompletely known. The bird depicted here, an adult female, was recorded three consecutive nights, 29–31 January 1996, c. 10 km south-east of San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize and is one of very few documented records from Belize. It sat on the same perch each night, c. 2 m up on the edge of a large grassy field bordered by low deciduous forest and was photographed on 30 January 1996 by Edwin Jacobson using an Olympus OM-4 with a 65–200 mm zoom lens and hand-held Vivitar TTL flash. To identify this bird to species, note the bright tawny cinnamon hindcollar (particularly extensive on an upright-perching bird), narrow white forecollar, bold white mottling on the underparts, broad silvery scapular stripe bordered by coarse black blotches and the relatively broad pale tips to the outer rectrices5; the pale tips on the outer two rectrices are c. 1 cm wide on adult female Tawny-collared, and c. 1.5 cm wide on Yucatan. From above, the pale tips to the outer rectrices appear whitish, but from below they are cinnamon. Note that the illustration of a female’s tail on Plate 27 of Howell & Webb5 shows the maximal amount of whitish, as seen from above. First-year birds (both sexes) appear to have a tail pattern similar to adult females but with narrower, more tapered rectrices that have narrower cinnamon tips. A useful distinction from Tawny-collared Nightjar, also illustrated on Plate 27 but not mentioned in the text, is that the tail of Yucatan Nightjar is more graduated: on females, from the tail-tip to the tip of the outer rectrix averages 2+ cm on Yucatan, 1.5 cm on Tawny-collared.

Acknowledgements I thank Ed Jacobson, John Heizer, and Bob Franklin for their company in the field while we identified and photographed this cooperative bird, and Bob Behrstock for his comments on this note.

References 1. American Ornithologists’ Union (1983) Checklist of North American birds. Sixth edition. Kansas: American Ornithologists’ Union. 2. American Ornithologists’ Union (1995) Fortieth supplement to the AOU checklist of North American birds. Auk 112: 819–830. 3. Davis, L. I. (1972) A field guide to the birds of Mexico and Central America. Austin: University of Texas Press. 4. Hardy, J. W., Coffey, B. B. & Reynard, G. C. (1989) Voices of the New World nightjars and their allies. Gainesville, Florida: ARA records. 5. Howell, S. N. G. & Webb, S. (1995) A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 6. Paynter, R. A., Jr. (1955) The ornithogeography of the Yucatan Peninsula. New Haven, Connecticut: Peabody Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. 9. 7. Peterson, R. T. & Chalif, E. L. (1973) A field guide to Mexican birds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 8. Pierson, J. E. (1986) Notes on the vocalizations of the Yucatan Poorwill (Nyctiphrynus yucatanicus) and Tawny-collared Nightjar (Caprimulgus salvini). MBA Bulletin Board 1 (86): 3–4. 9. Russell, S. M. (1964) A distributional survey of the birds of British Honduras. Kansas: American Ornithologists’ Union, Orn. Mon. 1. 10. Sibley, C. G. & Monroe, B. L. (1990) Distribution and taxonomy of the birds of the world. New Haven & London, UK: Yale University Press. 11. Van Rossem, A. J. (1934) Critical notes on Middle American birds. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 77: 387–490.

Steve N. G. Howell Point Reyes Bird Observatory, 4990 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach, California 94970, USA.