Bird Conservation International (1998) 8:205-209. © BirdLife International 1998 News and Notes 'News and Notes' is intended to provide a forum for up to date information on threatened species, on-going conservation work and other issues related to bird conservation. It will include pieces abstracted from other publications. Please send any contributions to BCI News and Notes Editor, BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge CB3 oNA, UK, or e-mail them to [email protected]. Austral Rail Rallus antarcticus Collar, N.J., Gonzaga, L.P., Krabbe, N. rediscovered in Santa Cruz Madrono Nieto, A., Naranjo, L.G., Parker, Province, Argentina T.A. and Wege, D.C. (1992) Threatened Birds of the Americas. Cambridge, UK, A small population of the enigmatic Aus- International Council for Bird Preservation. tral Rail Rallus antarcticus has recently Fjeldsa, ]. and Krabbe, N. (1990) Birds of been found in Santa Cruz Province, the High Andes. Copenhagen, Apollo southern Patagonia, Argentina. Consid- Books. ered to be critically endangered if not Contact: Juan Mazar Barnett extinct (Collar et al. 1992). It was hypo- [email protected] thesised that the species had declined due to overgrazing by sheep and habitat Cherry-throated Tanager Nemosia change (Fjeldsa and Krabbe 1990), and it rourei rediscovered was last reported when a dead bird was found near El Bolson, Rio Negro in 1959 Forty-seven years after the last report and (Collar et al. 1992). nearly 130 years after the only specimen On 12 and 13 January 1998, Juan Mazar was collected, the Cherry-throated Tan- Barnett, Santiago Imberti, German Pug- ager Nemosia rourei has been rediscovered nali and Marco della Seta recorded at in Espirito Santo State, Brazil. The bird least four birds calling from dense reed- was previously known from the type- beds bordering the Rio Chico at Estancia specimen collected at Muriae, Minas La Angostura, and one individual was Gerias State in 1870, a flock of eight seen seen. Extensive tape recordings were in 1941 in the Limoeiro-Jatiboca area, Espirito Santo (Sick, 1979) and a possible obtained. sight record at Nova Lombardia Bio- It is considered likely that the species logical Reserve, Espirito Santo in 1992 will be found to be regular in areas of (Scott, 1997). The bird was found on pri- suitable habitat along the Rio Chico and vate land, where up to four individuals other areas in Santa Cruz and southern were seen and photographed on 22 and Patagonia, including adjacent areas of 24 February 1998. The discovery was Chile. Future field work is planned in made by six Brazilian researchers: Clau- Santa Cruz Province, in areas of suitable dia Bauer, Jose Fernando Pacheco, Ana reedmarshes, and is being funded Cristina Venturini, Pedro Rogerio de Paz, through the Neotropical Bird Club Con- Mariana Pacheco Rehen and Luciano servation Awards Program. Fieldwork Petronetto do Carmo. A photograph of will include a survey of the species distri- the bird can be viewed on the web-site of bution, which will be conducted using the Neotropical Bird Club (http:// tape recordings of the species calls, and www.neotropicalbirdclub.org). Full an attempt to assess the species density details of the rediscovery will be pub- and ecological requirements. Full details lished in due course. of the survey and rediscovery will be Scott, D.A. (1997) A possible re-sighting published in Cotinga (the journal of the of Cherry-throated Tanager Nemosia rourei Neotropical Bird Club). in Espirito Santo Brazil. Cotinga 7, 61- 63. Notes and News 206 Sick, H. (1979) Notes on some Brazilian nearly undetectable following Hurricane Birds. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 99: 115- 120. Iniki in 1992. It is a highly sedentary spe- Jose Fernando Pacheco in litt. March cies that lives in the steep river valleys in 1998. montane rainforest. The goal of the cap- tive breeding program is to establish new, disjunct populations of Puaiohi within the Satanic Eared-nightjar Eurostopodus species' historical distribution where suit- diabolicus rediscovery able habitat persists and the Puaiohi is absent. Bishop and Diamond (1997) report the Currently, there are five pairs of adult rediscovery of the Satanic Eared-nightjar Puaiohi at The Peregrine Fund's Keauhou Eurostopodus diabolicus in Sulawesi. Previ- Bird Conservation Center that originated ously known from the type specimen col- from eggs collected from the wild popula- lected on the Minahassa peninsula in tion in 1996 and 1997. Thus far, three 1931, although there have been three pos- pairs are laying eggs and two chicks have sible records since 1980, none could be hatched from two of these pairs. Eggs are confirmed. Bishop and Diamond collected from the breeding pairs, artifi- observed birds on four occasions, with cially incubated, and the chicks are sub- two individuals thought to have been sequently hand-reared. The pairs lay involved. The birds were found in prim- replacement clutches. In the wild, the ary hill forest at 1000 m and primary breeding pairs have been known to lay as montane forest at 1735 m in Lore Lindu many as five clutches in one season. The National Park, Central Sulawesi. chicks produced this breeding season will be 'hacked back' to the Alakai Wilderness Bishop, K.D. and Diamond, J.M. (1997) Area in late 1998 or early 1999. Appropri- Rediscovery ofHeinrich's Nightjar ate release sites are now being evaluated. Eurostopodus diabolicus. Kukila 9, 71— The Puaiohi will be released using the 73- same successful techniques developed in 1996 for releasing the Hawaii Thrush First Captive Breeding of the (Omao), Myadestes obscurus, a non- Endangered Small Kauai Thrush endangered endemic congener. (Puaiohi) Myadestes palmeri Alan Lieberman and Cyndi Kuehler With a population currently estimated to The Peregrine Fund be about 200 individuals, the endangered Keauhou Bird Conservation Center Small Kauai Thrush (Puaiohi) Myadestes [email protected] palmeri will soon benefit from a captive breeding programme aimed at bolstering the wild population. In co-operation with Stripe-headed Tanager Genus the Biological Resources Division of the Spindalis splits - implications for U.S. Geological Survey, the State of Caribbean conservation priorities Hawaii's Division of Forestry and Wild- life, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- A paper by Garrido et al. (1997) examines vice, The Peregrine Fund has successfully the taxonomy of the Stripe-headed Tan- bred, hatched and reared the Puaiohi. The ager Genus Spindalis in the West Indies. Puaiohi, one of only two extant Hawaiian The study recommends that the birds Thrushes, is only found in the Alakai Wil- which were previously considered one derness Area on the north-west quadrant species should be considered to involve of Kauai. Never known to be common four allospecies, resulting in the creation since it was first described to science in of additional endemics in Jamaica, Puerto the late 19th century, the Puaiohi popula- Rico and Hispaniola and Gonave Islands tion fell to less than 50 in 1981 and was and a fourth species with five sub-species Notes and News 207 inhabiting the Bahamas and Cozumel large areas including much of the forest Island. This is likely to be only one of a habitat needed by the oriole. The core of number of forthcoming revisions of con- the population, 100-200 birds, survives in ventional avian taxonomy in the Carib- the less affected Centre Hills. A rescue bean, which will result in the recognition plan has been put together by the Jersey of additional endemic and potentially Wildlife Preservation Trust, Royal Society endangered species. for the Protection of Birds (BirdLife Part- ner in the UK) and World Wide Fund for Garrido, O.H., Parkes, K.C., Reynard, Nature. The plan will involve establish- G.B., Kirkconnell, A. and Sutton, R. (1997) ment of a captive breeding population Taxonomy of the Stripe-headed Tanager, and assessment and monitoring of the Genus Spindali (Aves: Thraupinae) of the population in the Centre Hills. West Indies. Wilson Bull., 209(4) 561- 594. Oryx 32(2), 104. New site for White-necked Rockfowl Picathartes Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga gymnocephalus discovered winter range revelation by Satellite A new site has been discovered in Ivory A male Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila Coast for the globally threatened White- clanga fitted with a satellite transmitter necked Rockfowl Picathartes gymnoce- has been recorded wintering for two suc- phalus. Restricted to only five countries in cessive winters in Zambia. The species West Africa, the little-known species is had previously been known to winter regarded as declining throughout its only north of the Equator with the most range. Nesting sites have now been loc- southerly records being single sightings ated on rocky inselbergs in Mont Peko from Kenya and Uganda. The bird which National Park in western Ivory Coast. was trapped during the breeding season This is the fourth locality where the spe- in Biebrza National Park in Poland cies has been found in the country, returned to exactly the same area in the although one was apparently destroyed north-east of South Luangwa National by land clearance some years ago. Park in two successive years. While Trie new record for Mont Peko emerged migrating trve eagle covered approxim- during preparation for a new project by ately 350 km a day. The bird also crossed BirdLife International in support of the Tanzania from which there had been no Direction pour la Protection de la Nature. previous records of the species. In Sierra Leone, local communities have strong cultural ties with the Picathartes Meyburg, B-U., Meyburg, C, Mizera, T., nesting sites, which augurs well for the Maciorowski, G. and Kowlaski, }. (1998) future of the population there. Greater Spotted Eagle wintering in Zambia. Africa - Birds and Birding 3(1), 62- 68.