A CRYPTIC NEW SPECIES OF FLYCATCHER (TYRANNIDAE: SUIRIRI) FROM THE CERRADO REGION OF CENTRAL SOUTH AMERICA Author(s): Kevin J. Zimmer, Andrew Whittaker, David C. Oren Source: The Auk, 118(1):56-78. 2001. Published By: The American Ornithologists' Union DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0056:ACNSOF]2.0.CO;2 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1642/0004-8038%282001%29118%5B0056%3AACNSOF %5D2.0.CO%3B2 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. COLOR PLATE. Chapada Flycatcher, a new species of tyrant-¯ycatcher (Tyrannidae: Suiriri) from the cer- rado region of central South America. The male is pictured in pro®le on the left; the female is displaying with wings raised, on the right. From a watercolor painting by Daniel F. Lane. The Auk 118(1):56±78, 2001 A CRYPTIC NEW SPECIES OF FLYCATCHER (TYRANNIDAE: SUIRIRI) FROM THE CERRADO REGION OF CENTRAL SOUTH AMERICA KEVIN J. ZIMMER,1,2,5 ANDREW WHITTAKER,3 AND DAVID C. OREN4 1Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA; 21665 Garcia Road, Atascadero, California 93422, USA; 3Estrado do Aleixo, Conjunto Acariquara Sul, Rua da Samaumas 214, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil 69085; and 4Departamento de Zoologia, Museu Paraense EmõÂlio Goeldi, Caixa Postal 399, 66.017-970 BeleÂm, ParaÂ, Brazil ABSTRACT.ÐA new species of tyrant ¯ycatcher (Suiriri islerorum) is described from the cer- rado region of Brazil and adjacent eastern Bolivia. The species previously had been confused with Suiriri suiriri af®nis, with which it is syntopic at multiple sites. The new species was ®rst identi®ed by voice. Although cryptically similar to S. s. af®nis in many respects, the new species is readily identi®ed by all vocalizations, bill size, color pattern of the tail, and shape of the central rectrices. Most distinctive are the male±female duets, which are accompanied by dramatic wing-lifting displays not performed by any congeners. Reciprocal playback ex- periments of tape-recorded vocalizations demonstrated that the new species and S. s. af®nis do not respond to one another's vocalizations. We provide information on the natural history of the new ¯ycatcher, along with spectrograms of its various vocalizations. We also provide vocal analysis of all other named taxa in Suiriri, and discuss the various intrageneric rela- tionships. In particular, S. s. af®nis and S. s. bahiae, although distinct morphologically, are vocally and behaviorally similar, and respond to one another's vocalizations in playback ex- periments. Received 27 December 1999, accepted 5 September 2000. THE GENUS SUIRIRI has been the focus of tax- bahiae as a subspecies of S. af®nis, from which onomic debate for decades. Two species tradi- he found it to differ from typical forms by ``up- tionally were recognized, a short-billed, white- pertail coverts dark hair brown like the tail; bellied nominate form Suiriri suiriri;anda rectrices without any yellowish at the base and longer-billed, yellow-bellied form, S. af®nis. without the pale brownish apical band.'' The apparent intermediacy of a large series of Zimmer (1955) pointed out an additional Suiriri from northeastern Paraguay led Zimmer complication: ®ve AMNH specimens of S. af®n- (1955) to suggest that the two taxa were con- is from Mato Grosso and GoiaÂs, Brazil, all of speci®c. Meyer de Schauensee (1966) and Tray- which were anomalous in having a short, lor (1979) followed Zimmer in recognizing only broad-based bill and with the ``pale terminal one species of Suiriri, whereas Short (1975) did band on the rectrices unusually wide and dis- not agree that Paraguayan birds showed signs tinct, exceeding any other specimen at hand of intergradation and continued to recognize whether from the same or other localities and two species. Traylor (1982) reexamined the Par- whether suiriri, af®nis,orbahiae.'' Zimmer fur- aguayan material in the American Museum of ther noted that ``the signi®cance of this com- Natural History (AMNH), and found it as de- bination of characters is completely puzzling, scribed by Zimmer, concurring that S. suiriri since there is no allied group toward which and S. af®nis should be treated as conspeci®c. these features, singly or together, suggest a More recent authors have remained divided: trend.'' In his reexamination of Suiriri, Traylor Sibley and Monroe (1990) recognized two spe- (1982) commented on the ®ve aberrent AMNH cies of Suiriri, whereas Ridgely and Tudor specimens and an identical specimen from (1994) recognized only one. As currently treat- MaranhaÄo, Brazil (from the Field Museum of ed, the genus also includes one additional tax- Natural History, Chicago; hereafter FMNH). In on, S. s. bahiae, a yellow-bellied taxon from addition to the short bill and broad, pale tips to northeastern Brazil. Hellmayr (1927) treated the rectrices, the six specimens further could be distinguished from typical af®nis by their dis- 5 E-mail: [email protected] tinctly broader central rectrices and a lack of 57 58 ZIMMER,WHITTAKER, AND OREN [Auk, Vol. 118 any contrasting pale edging to those feathers specimens and tissue samples were deposited (Traylor 1982). Traylor noted that ``ordinarily with the MPEG. We also located additional the close correlation of two such discrete and sites of sympatry between the two vocal types. unrelated characters as the short bill and the coloration and shape of the rectrices would be METHODS strong evidence that we have two sibling spe- cies. I think that eventually this will prove to We made observations of Suiriri at various sites in be true, but the possibility that the short-billed Mato Grosso, Brazil (August and October 1991, and birds may somehow be related to the intergra- every September from 1993 to 1999); Pernambuco, Brazil (each January from 1996 to 1999, and February dation between af®nis and suiriri cannot be ig- 1996); GoiaÂs, Brazil (January 1996); and AmapaÂ, Bra- nored at this time.'' He concluded by stating zil (February 1998 and 1999). All measurements used ``most important, without ®eld studies of the in behavioral data (e.g. distances, heights) are esti- various taxa, it is useless to speculate.'' mates. Sexual identi®cation of birds in the ®eld was During the course of several years of ®eld based on sex-speci®c, stereotyped displays or vocal- work at various sites in Brazil, Zimmer and izations, the sexual speci®city of which was con- Whittaker found that there were two markedly ®rmed by postmortem inspection of specimens that different vocal types of yellow-bellied Suiriri, we collected. Mapped distributions (as they appear one of which was relatively widespread, occur- in this paper) are based entirely on label data from ring from Amapa to Bahia to GoiaÂs; and the specimens that the senior author examined, on more recent records documented by tape recordings, and other which we knew only from the Chapada on our own collecting sites. Those localities were en- dos GuimaraÄes region of Mato Grosso. The ®rst tered into a sector-based Geographic Information type included birds that, by both distribution System (Isler 1997) and mapped by Morton Isler. and morphological characters, clearly were as- We assume that vocalizations of Suiriri, like those signable to S. s. bahiae, as well as birds that ap- of other suboscines, are mostly or entirely inherited peared to be typical of S. s. af®nis. The second (Kroodsma 1984, 1989; Kroodsma and Konishi 1991), type was distinctive not only for its vocaliza- and as such, provide potentially informative char- tions, but also for its dramatic wing-¯apping acters for systematic study as in other suboscines displays that invariably accompanied all terri- (Lanyon 1978, Isler et al. 1997, Krabbe and Schulen- torial duets by mated pairs (see below). Recip- berg 1997). To analyze vocalizations, we assembled recordings of all named taxa of Suiriri for compari- rocal playback experiments conducted at mul- son with our own recordings. Locations and record- tiple sites revealed that the two vocal types did ists for all recordings examined are listed below. For not respond to one anothers' vocalizations. In comparison, vocalizations were categorized as loud- September 1998, we found the two vocal types songs, duets, or calls. ``Loudsongs'' were consistent- occurring syntopically near CuiabaÂ, Mato ly patterned multinote vocalizations (Isler et al. 1997) Grosso, Brazil. Close comparison revealed that given by an individual bird, seemingly in the context one vocal type was noticeably short-billed com- of territorial advertisement. Those were given indi- pared to the other and had a distinct buffy ter- vidually by both sexes, but most frequently