The ABBI in the Neotropics: identifying and discovering bird species in the richest avifauna of the World

TUBARO, P. L.

Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Congreso; Second International Barcode of Life Conference; 2007

Academia Sinica/Consortium for the Barcode of Life

Plenary Session Abstracts ALL BIRDS BARCODING INITIATIVE IN THE NEOTROPICS: IDENTIFYING AND DISCOVERING BIRD SPECIES IN THE RICHEST AVIFAUNA OF THE WORLD PABLO TUBARO MACN, Buenos Aires, Argentina About a third of the known species of birds live in the Neotropical Region (4069 species with 3121 endemics) and several more species are probably waiting to be described. This set includes extensive radiations of both non-passerine and passerine families where plumage similarity in some cases and non-concordant patterns of trait variation in others cause problems in species identification. Thus, Neotropical avifauna provides a particularly interesting ground to test the effectiveness of DNA barcoding. Up to now, progress in the barcoding of the birds of the Neotropics includes most of the species in the Caribbean region and Panama, and more than 50% of the species from Argentina. Other efforts in the region include the barcode of the Psittaciforms, Formicariids, Tyrannids and Charadriiforms. Based on the results from the birds of Argentina, interespecific levels of divergence in COI sequence are similar to those of the birds in North America. In 3% of the cases we also found significant levels of intraspecific divergence in COI sequences suggesting the possible existence of cryptic species or geographical races that deserve a species status.