IBIGEO   22622
INSTITUTO DE BIO Y GEOCIENCIAS DEL NOA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Tiny bird, huge mystery - the Possibly Extinct Hooded Seedeater (Sporophila melanops) is a capuchino with a melanistic cap
Autor/es:
ARETA JI; PIACENTINI VQ; HARING E; GAMAUF A; SILVEIRA LF; MACHADO E; KIRWAN G
Revista:
PLOS ONE
Editorial:
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
Referencias:
Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2016
ISSN:
1932-6203
Resumen:
Known with certainty solely from a unique male specimen collected in central Brazil in thefirst quarter of the 19th century, the Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) HoodedSeedeater Sporophila melanops has been one of the great enigmas of Neotropical orni-thology, arguably the only one of a host of long-lost species from Brazil to remainobstinately undiscovered. We reanalysed the morphology of the type specimen, as wellas a female specimen postulated to represent the same taxon, and sequenced mitochon-drial DNA (COI and Cyt-b) from both individuals. Furthermore, we visited the type locality,at the border between Goiás and Mato Grosso, and its environs on multiple occasions atdifferent seasons, searching for birds with similar morphology to the type, without suc-cess. Novel genetic and morphological evidence clearly demonstrates that the type of S.melanops is not closely related to Yellow-bellied Seedeater S. nigricollis, as has been fre-quently postulated in the literature, but is in fact a representative of one of the so-calledcapuchinos, a clade of attractively plumaged seedeaters that breed mostly in the South-ern Cone of South America. Our morphological analysis indicates that S. melanops has ahitherto unreported dark-coffee throat and that it is probably a Dark-throated Seedeater S.ruficollis collected within its wintering range, acquiring breeding plumage and showingmelanism on the cap feathers. Alternatively, it may be a melanistic-capped individual of alocal population of seedeaters known to breed in the Esteros del Iberá, Corrientes, Argen-tina, to which the name S. ruficollis might be applicable, whilst the name S. plumbeicepsmight be available for what is currently known as S. ruficollis. A hybrid origin for S. mela-nops cannot be ruled out from the available data, but seems unlikely. The purportedfemale specimen of S. melanops pertains either to S. nigricollis or to Double-collaredSeedeater S. caerulescens based on genetic and morphological data, and thus cannot bea female of S. melanops. We conclude that Sporophila melanops is not typical of any natural population of seedeaters, appears to have been collected far from its breedinggrounds while overwintering in central Brazil, and should not be afforded any conservationstatus.