Neotropical Biology and Conservation 10(3):169-176, september-december 2015 Unisinos - doi: 10.4013/nbc.2015.103.07 SHORT COMMUNICATION First record of the Yellowish Pipit in Acre with notes on other grassland birds in southwestern Amazônia Primeiro registro do Caminheiro-zumbidor no Acre com notas sobre outras aves de ambientes campestres no sudoeste amazônico Edson Guilherme1 [email protected] Abstract This paper presents the first record of the Yellowish Pipit (Anthus lutescens) in the Brazil- Robson Esteves Czaban2 ian state of Acre. This record represents the westernmost record of the species in Brazil [email protected] and provides evidence of its expansion into the southwestern Amazon basin. We also present information on the occurrence of other bird species, typical of grasslands and other open habitats, e.g., the Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia), the White-tailed Hawk (Geranoaetus albicaudatus), the Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) and the Southern Caracara (Caracara plancus). These species have encroached southwestern Amazônia following environmental changes caused by human activities, such as the construction of highways and the conversion of the rainforest into cattle pasture. Keywords: Aves, Anthus lutescens, Motacillidae, open habitats, range extension. Resumo Este trabalho divulga o primeiro registro do Caminheiro-zumbidor (Anthus lutescens) no estado brasileiro do Acre. Este registro é o mais ocidental da espécie em território bra- sileiro e marca a sua expansão em direção ao sudoeste amazônico. Apresenta também informações sobre algumas espécies de aves típicas de ambientes campestres, tais como a coruja-buraqueira (Athene cunicularia), o gavião-de-rabo-branco (Geranoaetus albicau- datus), o quero-quero (Vanellus chilensis) e o caracará (Caracara plancus), entre outras. Essas espécies vêm ocupando áreas na Amazônia após mudanças ambientais provo- cadas pelo homem, tais como a abertura de estradas e a conversão das florestas em pastagens para atividades agropastoris. Palavras-chave: Aves, Anthus lutescens, Motacillidae, ambientes abertos, extensão de distribuição. 1 Universidade Federal do Acre, Museu Universitário, Laboratório de Ornitologia. Campus Universitário, BR 364, km 04, Distrito Industrial, 69915-900, Rio Branco, AC, Brasil. 2 Superintendência do IBAMA no Amazonas. Rua Ministro João Gonçalves de Souza, s/n, Distrito Industrial, 69075- 830, Manaus, AM, Brasil. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits reproduction, adaptation, and distribution provided the original author and source are credited. Edson Guilherme, Robson Esteves Czaban The family Motacillidae comprises and Mooney, 1999). In northern South pacted by major colonization projects five genera and 65 species. The genus America, the Amazon rainforest is established by the Brazilian military Anthus is the most diverse, with 43 being devastated at an alarming rate government during the 1970s and species. Despite having a global dis- (Fearnside, 2005). Brazilian regions, 1980s (Acre, 2000; Scarcello and Bi- tribution, only seven Anthus species such as the state of Rondônia and done, 2007). occur in the Neotropical region (Ty- eastern Acre (Figure 1), have already This work reports on the first record ler, 2004; Ridgely and Tudor, 2009). lost much of their forest cover, leaving of a bird species in the Brazilian state These species, known as Pipits, are vast areas covered with exotic grasses of Acre, as well as the occurrence of insectivorous, terrestrial, with large for cattle grazing (Fearnside, 1993, a number of grassland species in this legs and toes, and a well-developed 2005, 2008; Pfaff, 1999; Vieira et al., state. The occurrence of such species claw on the hallux. Pipits inhabit open 2008, Araújo et al., 2011). This is pre- was not previously reported in the environments, such as prairies, grass- occupying because different bird spe- southwestern extreme of the Brazilian lands, and cattle pasture (Tyler, 2004). cies show different degrees of sensi- Amazon. The Yellowish Pipit (Anthus lutescens tivity to deforestation (Lees and Peres, Data on Anthus lutescens were ob- PUCHERAN, 1855) occurs in Panama 2006). Deforestation and urbanization tained from sporadic observations and throughout most of South Amer- cause local extinction, and a decrease conducted by REC, while the informa- ica, from Colombia to Argentina, with in avian species diversity that favors tion on the occurrence of other grass- the exception of Ecuador and most of the dominance of a few bird species land species in Acre is the result of a the central and southwestern Amazon that are specialized for the coloniza- continuous review of the scientific lit- basin (Tyler, 2004; Ridgely and Tu- tion of open habitats (Beissinger and erature conducted by EG over the past dor, 1994). Three subspecies are rec- Osborne, 1982; Blair, 1996). 11 years (Guilherme, 2009, 2012). We ognized. The nominal form (Anthus The Brazilian state of Acre has al- also used the data on the specimens l. lutescens) occurs in Brazil, while ready lost about 12% of its original collected by EG between 2004 and Anthus l. peruvianus is found on the forest cover (Rodrigues and Ferreira, 2015, deposited in the ornithological Pacific coast of Peru (Tyler, 2004; 2013). Most of the deforestation is collection of Museu Paraense Emílio Schulenberg et al., 2010). The subspe- concentrated in the east of the state, Goeldi, in Belém (Pará State), and cies A. l. parvus occurs on the Pacific where urban centers, including the the Laboratório de Ornitologia of the slope of western Panama. Of the five city of Rio Branco – the capital of the Universidade Federal do Acre, in Rio species of Anthus occurring in Brazil, state (Figure 1), can be found. In ad- Branco (Acre). Information was also the Yellowish Pipit is the most widely dition, this part of the state was im- obtained from the Wikiaves Brazilian distributed. This species occurs in al- most all regions, from the “campos sulinos”, or southern grasslands, to parts of the north and northeast of the country (Sick, 1997; Ridgely and Tu- dor, 1994). In the Amazon biome, the Yellowish Pipit was recorded in Pam- pas del Heath, a seasonally flooded lowland, which is a natural grassland formation, along the Heath River on the Peru-Bolivian border (Graham et al., 1980). This species has also been recorded in an enclave of Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) in the southeast- ern portion of the Brazilian state of Amazonas (Aleixo and Poletto, 2007), and in cattle pasture in the municipal- ity of Alta Floresta, in northern Mato Grosso (Lees et al., 2013). The environmental changes caused by human activities, have transformed ecosystems and, as a result, benefited Figure 1. Southwestern Amazon showing the major highways and urban centers. The the spread of many invasive plants green star represents the site at which the Yellowish Pipit (Anthus lutescens) was recorded and animals around the world (Dukes for the first time in the eastern portion of the Brazilian state of Acre, Brazil. 170 Volume 10 number 3 september - december 2015 First record of the Yellowish Pipit in Acre with notes on other grassland birds in southwestern Amazônia website (www.wikiaves.com.br) in 340km (in a straight line) from Pam- the White-tailed Hawk (Geranoaetus order to identify the occurrence and pas del Heath on the Peruvian–Boliv- albicaudatus (VIEILLOT, 1816)), the range extensions of the grassland spe- ian border (Graham et al., 1980) and Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilen- cies in the municipalities located in around 650Km from an enclave of sis (MOLINA, 1782)), and the Southern the southwestern Brazilian Amazon. Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) in the Caracara (Caracara plancus (MILLER, The scientific nomenclature used in southeastern portion of the Brazilian 1777)). The shift in environmental this manuscript is that proposed by the state of Amazonas (Aleixo and Polet- conditions may also support range ex- CBRO (2014). to, 2007). These are the two closest lo- tensions and an increase in abundance On 19 January 2015, at 09:01 h, REC cations where the species was record- of the populations of some species heard a bird vocalizing in a pasture ed previously in the Amazon biome. that had previously had an intermit- located at Km 84 of the Brazilian BR- The presence of the Yellowish Pipit tent distribution in the Amazon re- 317 interstate highway between the in the state of Acre represents the gion, such as the Red-breasted Black- municipalities of Senador Guiomard, westernmost known locality for the bird (Sturnella militaris (LINNAEUS, in the state of Acre, and Boca do Acre, species in Brazil, and provides con- 1758)) and the Black-faced Tanager in Amazonas (Figure 1). On recogniz- clusive evidence of the expansion of (Schistochlamys melanopis (LATHAM, ing the vocalization of Anthus, REC the distribution of this species into 1790)). played back the song of the Yellowish the southwestern Amazon basin. The Pipit (A. lutescens), and the bird re- transformation of the original for- Species accounts of sponded. When it heard the playback, est cover into open areas, combined the principal open- the bird walked across the ground to with the high dispersal capacity of the habitat birds found in within a distance of 10m from the ob- members of the family Motacillidae the southwestern server and then flew away and perched, (Voelker, 2002), would account for Amazon but continued vocalizing. On this occa- the recent occurrence of the Yellow- sion, only one individual was observed ish Pipit in Acre. These factors would Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia, and photographed (Figure 2). also explain the presence of other Figure 3) – Originally absent from On 12 March 2015, EG went to open-habitat bird species that have forested Amazonian habitats (Holt et the same site and obtained the geo- arrived recently in the southwestern al., 1999), the natural populations of graphic coordinates (10°06’55.1” S, Amazon basin, particularly in the state this species were only found in en- 67°41’20.6” W).