São Paulo Antwren, Biritiba-Mirim, Brazil
By Charlie • April 11, 2009 • 14 commentsOne of the least-known taxa in Brazil (and thus probably in the world) is an antwren found only in typha marshes at the head of the Teite River in São Paulo, south-eastern Brazil. Only discovered in February 2005 when an ecological survey was made of an area threatened by a new reservoir (see below for more details), the bird was at first thought to be a form of Parana Antwren Stymphalornis acutirostris - itself only discovered in 1995 and confined to fragmented littoral marshes in Paraná and Santa Catarina several hundred kilometres to the south.
Ongoing studies seem likely to conclude that both taxa are in fact separate species in the genus Formicavora. As Birdlife International already classifies the combined populations of ‘Parana Antwren’ as Endangered, and apparently no-one actually knows with any degree of accuracy how many ‘Marsh’ or ‘São Paulo Antwrens’ there are and where they are within their tiny (and equally fragmented) range the assumption must be that it is extremely rare and either Endangered or Critically Endangered. (The São Paulo Metropolitan area now somehow holds over 20 million people and the demand for land and water resources is crushing and relentless.)
I was shown this pair - almost certainly the only accessible pair of São Paulo Antwren in the world - by professional bird-guide Rick Simpson, of Rick Simpson.com who is based in Ubatuba. He took me to a very dense typha marsh outside the town of Biritiba-Mirim, and after about 45 minutes I managed to get the photos below. There do seem to be very few photographs of the taxon on the net, so hopefully these will be of interest!
The first six photos are of the female (which was slightly more obliging than the male). The habitat here is basically tall, tangled and dense marsh grasses interspered with a few small trees. The antwrens themselves keep low down in the vegetation (between two feet and five feet off the ground when I saw them), are constantly on the move, and though they seemed fairly oblivious to observers it’s incredibly hard to get a clear view of them.
Female Sao Paulo Antwren
Male Sao Paulo Antwren
One that got away - for all those who assume I never panic when I’m faced with a genuine rarity, here’s the moment when I had the male antwren in the open for the first (and last) time and made a complete hash of the shot…To see what is possible when you keep your nerve have a look at a photo on Rick’s blog (scroll down to the bottom).
I was looking for more info on the internet about this intriguing bird - which I knew virtually nothing about before Rick took me to see it - and discovered the following on the superb, encyclopeadic website of Arthur Grosset at http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/paranaantwren.html
The discovery of this new population / new species took place in February 2005. The press release from the University of São Paulo is here [in Portugese].
My translation into English of this press release is as follows:
- “The São Paulo version of the Marsh Antbird lived undisturbed in the green belt of the city of São Paulo until, in February 2005, it was identified as a new species of the genus Stymphalornis. From that moment on, it didn’t have a minute’s peace. The reason was that the habitat of the only population known at that time was to be flooded for the construction of the Paraitinga reservoir, creating a great danger for these creatures.
Immediately the discoverer of the bird, the biologist, Luís Fábio Silveira of the University of São Paulo, together with his team, did everything possible to capture as many individuals as they could and release them in areas with similar vegetation, typha (cattails) marshland. “It is the first time in South America that this procedure, called re-location, has been used for insect-eating passeriforms”, explained the scientist.
Since there is almost no literature on it, the procedure required special care. “We will monitor all the transferred populations for a year to ensure that they have adapted well to their new habitats.” Silveira kept both IBAMA and the São Paulo Water and Electricity Department informed and they both followed and supported the project.
In total 72 individuals were captured (35 males and 37 females), all transferred to 12 nearby localities with similar ecosystems, giving priority to protected areas. Silveira states that the approach, although a bit drastic, had to be taken because some characteristics of the species indicated that its population was very small. “It is restricted to a habitat that is not very common in the region.”
In parallel, another population of the species was located by the biologist Dante Buzetti in the region between Mogi das Cruzes and Arujá, near to the locality where it was first discovered. However, since the area did not present immediate risks, the creatures did not need to be relocated.
Silveira is now working on the formal description of the new species so that it can be formally recognised by the scientific community. Since it has not yet been described scientifically, it does not have a specific scientific name receiving in the meantime the denomination Stymphalornis sp. nov.. Initially it was thought to be the species S. acutirostris, known as Marsh Antwren (or Parana Antwren) endemic to the coast of Paraná and Santa Catarina.
With precautions for the preservation of the birds taken it is hoped that the re-location of them will be successful and that the project will provide valuable information for future conservation programmes. The discovery of the birds was announced officially on 5th May 2005 by IBAMA who intend to include it in its list of endangered species.”
Copyright Arthur Grosset http://www.arthurgrosset.com
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Wow!
Yeah, what Mike said. “Wow!”
How many birds have you seen now that are still not formally described for science?
Soooo jealous…….
I know - WOW. My cup runneth over eh, Pied Thrush and Indian Pitta last week, this amazing species this week, and the Canopy Tower in Panama next week…sometimes life is just TOOO good to be true…
Hi Charlie
I was in Brazil the end of January and early February leading a trip for Kolibri Expeditions. And we also went for the undescribed Antwren. I just love undescribed birds.
If you are frustrated that you can not list your undescribed birds, here is a game to play:
Expedition Birding!
It is a point-system for restricted range species, threatened species, newly described species and species in the pipeline to be described. It also recognise those splits that are in the pipeline that will constitute restricted range species (area of occupation less than 50000 km2). I started this point system in 2001 and soon put it into a database on line.
Check out the Expedition Birding web-site.
I have not updated the site for some time (we got a baby in between!), so some of the scores need editing, but since I have just secured a couple of editorial members for the database, it shall very soon be up-dated and active again.
The objective behind this is to get world birders to put their eco-dollars where they are most needed. I could go on and list a number of projects where one can show that only a limited number of birders visiting a site can make a huge difference…and it opens up for local entrepreneurs to start eco-business including the threatened species. When the threatened species gets a value it will be in the local entrepreneurs interest to protect it.
As for the undescribed Antwren. 8 points, Charlie….not bad!
Hi Charlie.
It was great to meet you, these photos are fantastic, among the best I have seen of this species (shame about the male!).
I went back to the site the next day with a young couple from the UK and the birds were even more co-operative if you can believe that! the male sat in the sun preening itself. The pair were particularly relaxed because we had found them without playback.
I wish you had been with me though with your great photographic skills, as we found a trio of Unicoloured Blackirds, an extralimital record, and no photographer to record the event!
Come back soon Charlie.
Hey Gunnar! Do I get 8 points everytime I go or just once?!
Hi Rick, 10000birds readers shall know that we also used your great services in Ubatuba. That was a great trip. I still have a few blog posts about it, that needs to be posted on my blog at one time or another. I am getting distracted by all the other ideas, how to improve my blogging.
As for the Expedition Birding concept, you’d get 8 points only once. But you get to keep your points when the species is downgraded. When it is formally described, it will get only 7 points for five years starting from the year after the description. After those five years it will get points according to Birdlife status. Presently Parana Antwren is catagorized Endangered which gives 3 points. If considered critical it would be worth 5 points. Vulnarable is 2 points and Near Threatened or just being a restricted range species would be 1 point.
Not all birders enjoy listing, so this system is not for them. But for those that do enjoy listing, this takes listing one step further as it invites the lister to concentrate on little known birds and those that are critically threatened. In the end this builds up as an economic resource with tourists visiting the areas were the birds are, as well as amounting data about rare, threatened or little known species.
Do I make any sense?
There is dormant listserver for Expedition Birding that I will kick back to life in the coming days. Seemingly, Yahoo may have killed it, due to too little activity, during the two years I have been raising my daughter and left the list sleeping. If you try to access, please ask Yahoo to give it back. [UPDATE: it's back and running now].
Saludos
Gunnar
Your cup runneth over, Charlie?
I told you, that Acro was really just an ordinary, average Blyth’s.
Seriously, man, really seriously!
Hi Rick
Well, thanks for the nice comments! I had a great day (and before anyone asks, yes, I paid Rick for guiding and this is not just free PR in return for a day out) and I’ll attempt to get more posts online asap…the photos of the Rufous-sided Crake definitely need posting!
Cheers!
Gunnar: sounds like fun! Hey, how come you’ve dropped us from your blogroll though?
Charlie, I haven’t done anything to the links. But I checked and you were not there. The link-eating monster hit again! Anyway, I restored you!
Do you use XFN in your links? I never untill now, and I am not even sure I understand what it is good for, but anyway marked you guys as “Friends”.
Cheers Gunnar. I’ve never heard of XFN, but I’ll ask Mike who does all our coding and see if he knows what its all about!
Totally out context….but something I am seeing here. Why am I and Rick just a blank head and Corey, Mike, Charlie and Clare has a nice picture avatar? Is it something I can put as html code in the message, I wonder?
[...] (Antbirds) Peruvian Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis peruviana) Sao Paulo Antwren (Stymphalornis sp.) Furnariidae (Ovenbirds) Stout-billed Cinclodes (Cinclodes excelsior) White-chinned Thistletail [...]