First record of the austral thrush (Turdus falcklandii) from the South Shetland Island, Antarctica

M. MERCEDES SANTOS; DIEGO MONTALTI; MARIANA A. JUARES; NÉSTOR R. CORIA; DIEGO ARCHUBY

Notornis

Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Nelson, Nueva Zelandia

Año: 2007 vol. 54 p. 231 - 232

0029-4470

The austral thrush (Turdus falcklandii) is the southernmost of the c.300 species of turdids distributed in all parts of the world except Antarctica. T. falcklandii is resident from 27°S in Chile and 37°S in Argentina to Tierra del Fuego, Staten Island, Malvinas Islands, and is­lands south of the Beagle Channel. A single T. falcklandii was sighted on Potter Peninsula, 25 de Mayo/King George I, South Sandwich Is, on 18 Sep 2002. The bird was perched on a box under the building of the Argentinean Jubany Station; it disappeared that afternoon. The bird was an adult male of the subspecies T. f. magellanicus whose range includes Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Before our report, the southernmost record of passerine birds was that of 2 barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) that were transported from Buenos Aires to Potter Cove, 25 de Mayo/King George I, South Shetland Is by the Argentinian naval icebreaker Almirante Irízar, in Nov 1993. The presence of migratory neotropical birds in Antarctica is usually associated with storms or droughts that force birds to move out of their normal distributions. This seems not to be the reason for the austral thrushs presence because no storms were recorded at the island in the days preceding the observation. It is difficult, therefore, to account for the presence of a non-migratory species, whose recorded movements are