Birds of the Reserva Biológica do Mato Grande and surroundings, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

The Reserva Biológica do Mato Grande encompasses 5,161 hectares of wetlands, restinga forests and grasslands in southern Brazil. Aiming to assemble a list of bird species occurring in the reserve, we carried out 21 monthly expeditions from July 2007 to March 2009 and an additional visit on October 2014, totaling 341 hours of sampling. We additionally searched for records in online databases and museums. In total, 211 species of birds were found, compared to 223.83 (SD = 3.88) and 214.68 (SD = 4.71) species respectively predicted through Jackknife 2 and Chao 2 estimations. Plegadis chihi was the most abundant bird roosting in the reserve. The area is important for the conservation of Circus cinereus, Spartonoica maluroides, Limnoctites rectirostris and Sporophila palustris, which are considered threatened or near-threatened in state, national and/or global levels. We emphasize the urgent need of implementing the Reserva Biológica do Mato Grande in order to conserve the regional avifauna

Plant-hummingbird interactions and temporal nectar availability in a <i>arestinga </i>from Brazil

ABSTRACT Hummingbirds are the most important and specialized group of pollinating birds in the Neotropics and their interactions with plants are key components to many communities. In the present study we identified the assemblage of plants visited by hummingbirds and investigated the temporal availability of floral resources in an area of restinga, sandy plain coastal vegetation associated with the Atlantic forest, in Southeastern Brazil. We recorded flower and nectar features, flowering phenology and interactions between plants and hummingbirds and estimated the amount of calories produced per hectare from June 2005 to August 2006. Ten plant species were visited by two hummingbirds,Amazilia fimbriata and Eupetomena macroura. Resource availability was highly variable among plant species and over time. Nectar volume and concentration per flower were similar to other Neotropical hummingbird-visited plant assemblages. The estimated nectar resource availability between months varied from 0.85 to 5.97 Kcal per hectare/day, demanding an area between one and 6.8 ha to support a single hummingbird. Our study reports an unusual tropical setting where almost all interactions between hummingbirds and plants were performed by a single hummingbird species,A. fimbriata. Hence, the variable nectar availability is probably influencing hummingbird movements, its foraging area, and consequently plant pollination

Are native bees and Apis mellifera equally efficient pollinators of the rupestrian grassland daisy Aspilia jolyana (Asteraceae)?

Most angiosperms rely on animals for pollination, and insects, especially bees, are the most frequent pollinators. Many native Neotropical plants are frequently visited by the invasive honeybee (Apis mellifera), but its role in the pollination of these plants has been little investigated. We assessed the contribution of various floral visitors, including native bees and the honeybee, on the pollination of a generalist rupestrian grassland daisy, Aspilia jolyana (Asteraceae), in Serra do Cipó, Espinhaço Mountain Range, Brazil. We recorded floral visitors and measured the seed set resulting from one single visitation. We observed a total of 442 visits, mostly by bees, with Bombus pauloensis and Apis mellifera being the most common floral visitors. Other visitors included many other species of bees, flies, hummingbirds, wasps and butterflies. Pollinators significantly increased seed set in comparison to non-visited (bagged) capitula. Moreover, there was no difference among bee species/groups in their contribution to seed set. Thus, A. jolyana benefits from its generalized pollination strategy, and frequent bee visitors, including several native species and the invasive honeybee, are equally effective pollinators for this generalist daisy of rupestrian grassland

First records of Casiornis rufus (Vieillot, 1816) (Aves, Tyrannidae) for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil

The Rufous Casiornis, Casiornis rufus (Vielliot, 1916), is widespread in central South America, reaching its southernmost distribution in northern Argentina and Uruguay. Here we present the first nine records of the species for Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil. The records were documented with photographs and consisted mostly of lone individuals observed in riparian forests inserted in a matrix of grasslands and rice fields. The Rufous Casiornis apparently occurs in very low densities in the region. More observations are needed to elucidate its status of occurrence in Rio Grande do Sul

Birds of the Parque Ecológico Lagoa da Fazenda, Sobral, Ceará state, northeastern Brazil

Natural areas within cities are important as they contribute to maintain biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. In Ceará state, inventories of birds in human-impacted areas are still scarce. Here, we inventory bird species and estimate the species richness at Parque Ecológico Lagoa da Fazenda, an urban park in the municipality of Sobral, in northeastern Brazil. We found 82 bird species, of which 16 breed in the area, three are endemics, and three others are introduced. Despite the moderate species richness detected, richness estimators revealed that sampling was sufficient to detect most species. To maintain or even increase local species richness, we suggest the cessation of urban expansion within the park, sewage dumping, and filling of the wetland, as well as further planting of native vegetation

Breeding biology and conservation of the Marsh Seedeater Sporophila palustris

El Capuchino Pecho Blanco Sporophila palustris es uno de los capuchinos menos conocidos y uno de los más amenazados. Sus poblaciones reproductivas son locales, fragmentadas y ocurren en el nordeste de Argentina, sudeste de Brasil y en Uruguay. Presentamos datos reproductivos describiendo nidos y huevos, comportamiento (incluyendo cortejo, nidificación, incubación y cuidado parental), sitios de anidación y datos sobre alimentación. El Capuchino Pecho Blanco nidifica en pastizales altos y húmedos en buen estado de conservación. Estos hábitats en general se han convertido en áreas ganaderas. Las principales amenazas son sobrepastoreo, uso generalizado del fuego, drenaje de humedales, reemplazo total del hábitat por pasturas y forestaciones y captura ilegal. La mayoría de los sitios se localizan en AICAs, pero sólo uno en Brasil y otro en Argentina se encuentran protegidos. Finalmente, proponemos una serie de medidas que contribuyen a la preservación del Capuchino Pecho Blanco y de otras aves amenazadas que conviven con este.The Marsh Seedeater Sporophila palustris is one of the most endangered and least known of the capuchino seedeaters. Breeding populations are patchy, occurring in north-east Argentina,southern Brazil, and Uruguay. We present data on the breeding biology of the species, and describe nests and eggs, behaviour (including courtship, nesting, incubation and parental care), breeding sites and food items. Marsh Seedeaters breed in well-preserved grasslands with wet soils and tall vegetation. In general, these habitats are used for extensive livestock ranching. Main threats are overgrazing, widespread use of fire, conversion of grasslands to pastures of exotic grasses and rice fields, afforestation, and illegal trapping. Most breeding sites are located in Important Bird Areas, but only one in Brazil and one in Argentina are protected. We propose a series of actions to promote the conservation of Marsh Seedeaters and other endangered birds that coexist in grassland habitats.Fil: Vizentin Bugoni, Jefferson. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; Brasil;Fil: Areta, Juan Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina;Fil: Di Giacomo, Alejandro G.. Asociación Ornitológica del Plata. Aves Argentinas. Departamento de Conservación; Argentina;Fil: Di Giacomo, Adrian Santiago. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución. Laboratorio de Ecología y Comportamiento Animal; Argentina;Fil: Jacobs, Fernando. Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Instituto de Biologia. Departamento de Zoologia e Genética; Brasil;Fil: Afonso Coimbra, Marco A.. Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Instituto de Biologia. Núcleo de Reabilitação da Fauna Silvestre e Centro de Triagem de Animais Silvestres; Brasil;Fil: Dias, Rafael A.. Universidade Católica de Pelotas. Laboratório de Biologia e Ecologia de Cordados. Setor de Ornitologia; Brasil

Variação interanual nas interações entre macrofungos e insetos, com ênfase em drosophilidae

O objetivo deste estudo é fazer um levantamento das interações entre Drosophilidae e os corpos frutíferos de fungos Basidiomycetes e Ascomycetes em uma comunidade no sul do Brasil, descrevendo a variação interanual nestas interações

Data from: Evolutionary history as a driver of ecological networks: a case study of plant-hummingbird interactions

Multiple factors drive species interactions in ecological networks, such as morphological barriers, spatio-temporal distribution, abundances and evolutionary histories of species. Novel methods are making it possible to evaluate the relative importance of each of these drivers. However, the lack of appropriate methods has prevented evaluating the extent to which interaction networks are shaped by species’ evolutionary histories. This study includes the evolutionary histories of species among the potential drivers of interactions, allowing the comparative analysis of its importance in structuring ecological networks. We hypothesized different possible phylogenetic scenarios to predict frequencies of interactions between species by combining concepts from the fields of ecological networks and ecophylogenetics. The usage of these scenarios is illustrated in a plant-hummingbird interaction network database from the Atlantic Forest, southeastern Brazil. We first evaluated which phylogenetic hypotheses better predict the observed network; subsequently, we evaluated the relative importance of species evolutionary histories, abundances, and matching on species morphologies and phenologies as drivers of their frequencies of interactions. The results suggest that the evolutionary histories of hummingbirds are more important than the species abundances in structuring the studied plant-hummingbird network but less important than the morphological and phenological matching among species. The approach developed here offers the potential to advance our understanding of the multiple factors structuring ecological networks