As aves da Estação Ecológica Serra das Araras, Mato Grosso, Brasil

Abstract

There are 1801 bird species in Brazil and 856 of those occur in Cerrado. This Biome is the largest, most distinctive and the richest Savanna in the world and it is probably the world's most endangered tropical Savanna, becoming a Hotspot and priority area for biodiversity conservation. Ecological Station Serra das Araras (EESA) occupies an area of 28.700 hectares of Cerrado, located in the Southwest of the State of Mato Grosso. It is part of the Provincia Serrana, a 400 km long and 40 km large mountain corridor connecting the Amazonian and Pantanal Biomes. The bird community of EESA was sampled monthly from May 2006 through December 2007. We placed a 500 m transect in each of five vegetation types. Each transect was walked once a month for 4 hours starting at sunrise and for 2 hours starting at sunset. Total sampling effort was 600 hours, comprising 80 daylight hours and 40 evening hours per transect/habitat. The list of birds of ESSA has 431 bird species, including 13 endemic birds of Cerrado and 7 threatened species in Brazil. Of these, 396 were recorded during this sampling effort, 29 out the sampling effort and six species were not registered in this study, although listed in studies conducted at EESA between 1986 and 1988. In the semi deciduous forest were recorded 150 species of birds, 256 species in riparian forest, 218 species in cerradão, 206 in cerrado sensu strict and 176 in parquet cerrado. Data analysis splitted the phytophysiognomies in two groups, the savanna (cerrado sensu strict and parque cerrado) and forested (gallery forest, cerradão and semi deciduous forest) bird communities. EESA bird richness is high compared with other areas of Cerrado. Perhaps the environmental heterogeneity of this protected area, with varied topography and vegetation is the reason for this larger species number. Along with the number of bird species, the presence of endemic and endangered species reinforces the importance of EESA for the conservation of this group. Keywords: Cerrado, protected area, habitat use, community ecology, endemic species, red list. VALADÃO, R.M. As aves da Estação Ecológica Serra das Araras, Mato Grosso, Brasil. Biota Neotrop. 12(3): http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v12n3/pt/abstract?article+bn02612032012Resumo: O Brasil possui 1.801 espécies de aves e o Cerrado abriga 856 dessas espécies. Esse bioma que cobre 24% do território nacional é a maior, mais distinta, mais rica e, provavelmente mais ameaçada savana tropical do mundo, o que lhe tornou "hot spot" mundial e área prioritária para conservação da biodiversidade. A Estação Ecológica Serra das Araras (EESA) ocupa 28.700 hectares de Cerrado no sudoeste do Mato Grosso, faz parte da Província Serrana, um corredor de serras com cerca de 400 km de comprimento por 40 km de largura, o qual conecta o Cerrado à transição do bioma Amazônico e ao Pantanal. Com o objetivo de inventariar a comunidade de aves da EESA, foi percorrido um transecto de 500 m em cada uma das seguintes fitofisionomias: mata semidecídua, mata ciliar, cerradão, cerra...

Composition and structure of bird communities in vegetational gradients of Bodoquena Mountains, western Brazil

“…The mean values of richness and abundance were larger in seasonal forests, woodland savannas and arboreal savannas, and lower in pastures. This result agrees with studies conducted in other Cerrado localities, where bird communities were normally more diversifi ed in seasonal forests, patches of woodland In this context, it was expected that riparian forests at EM would also present high bird abundance and species richness, because they have structurally heterogeneous environments and are usually mentioned as very rich formations in bird species in the Cerrado domain (Silva 1996, Silva and Bates 2002, Faria et al 2009, Valadão 2012. However, the riparian forests at EM presented low bird abundance and species richness, which may be attributed to the small area occupied by this physiognomie in the study area and the small number of samples utilized in them.…”

“…The woodland savannas is a forest physiognomy of the Cerrado domain which is habitat for many bird species that also occur in seasonal and riparian forests (Piratelli and Blake 2006, Valadão 2012, Posso et al 2013. However, at EM the birds of these savannas were more similar to birds of arboreal savannas.…”

Birds of Estação Ecológica da Serra das Araras, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil: additions and review

“…The bird was identified by the distinct chestnut head and the blue markings on the wings. The third record (Valadão 2012) took place in campo rupestre, in March 2007. However, the species is mentioned in this context due to the absence of documented evidence for these 3 records and the many unsuccessful campaigns recently carried out in the region to document the species (Save Brazil 2010, Save Brazil 2011, Valadão 2012 and this article).…”

“…With regard to avifauna, EESA has had 5 studies so far. Silva and Oniki (1988), Willis and Oniki (1990), Oniki and Willis (1999) and Oniki and Oliveira (2002) present data collected in expeditions undertaken from 1986 to 1988, while Valadão (2012) presents data collected in 2006 and 2007 that also make up the EESA management plan (Brazil 2016a). These works provide relevant information on the occurrence of several species in the region, including many noteworthy records, especially of Columbina cyanopis (Pelzeln, 1870), one of the rarest birds in the world (Silva andOniki 1988, Valadão 2012).…”

“…This review and compilation work aims to generate a standardized list and increase the credibility of the EESA species list, according to the guidelines laid down by the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee (Piacentini et al 2015). We combined the results of our inventory for EESA with occurrence records from the literature (Silva and Oniki 1988, Willis and Oniki 1990, Oniki and Oliveira 2002, Valadão 2012 and 2 species mentioned exclusively in the management plan (Brazil 2016a). We did not include the species cited in Oniki and Willis (1999), as record localities were imprecise.…”