Birds of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Part 1, Rheidae through Furnariidae. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 178, article 4
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Abstract
"Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, occupies a transitional zone comprising the southern end of the forested coastal mountains of southeastern Brazil and the northern reaches of the open, rolling or hilly grassland typical of Uruguay. It has additional geographic diversity from its Atlantic beaches, bits of chaco-type terrain in the extreme west, and more tropical type forests along the upper reaches of the Rio Uruguay. The bird life of the region reflects this variety. So far, 586 species have been registered for the state, 457 of them treated here as confirmed, probable, or potential nesters in the area. Of these nesters, 349 are known or assumed to have full-time resident populations in the state, while another 70 are migrants that spend the winter months elsewhere. The status of the other 38 remains to be clarified. Only 166 of these breeding species have ranges that extend beyond Rio Grande do Sul on all land sides, the remaining 291 encountering an edge to their ranges somewhere within. As a consequence, each section of the state has its own unique combination of bird species, and no one area is likely to have much more than half the total. Of the remaining 129 species, 14 are probably extinct, 53 are vagrants, and 62 are regular non-breeding migrants. This last group includes pelagic visitors, winter migrants from the southern cone of South America, North American species spending the northern winter months, and species in transit one or both ways between nesting and wintering grounds. Sporadic scientific collecting activity has occurred in Rio Grande do Sul since the early 1820s, but this is the first attempt at a comprehensive survey of the avifauna of the state. Information obtained from literature, museums, other observers, and my own fieldwork extending from 1970 to 1983 is compiled in individual accounts for each species. Data are usually provided on distribution, relative abundance, migration, habitat, field marks, size, soft part colors, voice, breeding, behavior, and museum specimens. A number of suggestions are made for future ornithological investigation. Conservation action is urged to save such favored sites as the espinilho parkland and the Lagoa do Peixe, and to protect additional roosting areas of the menaced red-spectacled parrot, Amazona pretrei"--P. 371.