Birds of Parque Estadual do Tainhas, an important protected area of the highland grasslands of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Parque Estadual do Tainhas – PET (Tainhas State Park) is a protected area with significant extensions of natural grasslands located in highland grasslands of northeastern Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, and recognized as an Important Bird Area. Our aim was to record the bird species richness of PET with a greater sampling effort than previous studies at the site, including unpublished data such as occurrence status of most species and evidence of breeding of some of them in the park. We surveyed birds between 2012 and 2018 performing aleatory trails covering mainly the central portion of PET (1,500 ha). We also added records from published studies. We listed 208 species, of which 203 were recorded during our fieldwork (including 18 species of conservation concern). The estimated richness was 222.22 (SD = 10.91) species, according to Jackknife 1 method. This result represents a 58% increase in the species richness of the park and shows that long-term monitoring of the bird community allows to access more accurate richness and to identify the regular species (core avifauna) of the park. The presence of 55 breeders and threatened species shows the importance of this protected area for breeding and conservation of grassland birds, such as Urubitinga coronata, Cinclodes pabsti, Xolmis dominicanus, Anthus nattereri, Xanthopsar flavus, and Sporophila melanogaster.

Comparison of Diurnal Birds of Prey Community Between Natural and Anthropized Environments in Highland Grasslands of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil

“…In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 64 species have already been recorded: 35 are represented by eagles or hawks, 11 by falcons, 14 by owls, and four by vultures (Franz et al 2018). Among the diurnal species that inhabits open fields, 23 have already been recorded in the highland grasslands of Rio Grande do Sul (Voss et al 1998, Petersen et al 2011, Zilio et al 2013, Chiarani & Fontana 2019, WikiAves 2019. It is important to say that some of them depend exclusively on these environments, not tolerating drastic changes due to anthropogenic changes (Bencke et al 2003).…”

Estudo da avifauna de cinco áreas úmidas, nos campos de cima da serra, município de São Francisco de Paula/RS, Brasil

“…Os Campos de Altitude ou Campos do Planalto Meridional (MMA, 2000;IBGE, 2004), também conhecidos fisiograficamente como Campos de Cima da Serra estão inseridos dentro do Bioma da Mata Atlântica e formam mosaicos com as formações florestais, áreas úmidas e turfeiras, a uma altitude de aproximadamente 800m, sendo localizados ao nordeste do estado do Rio Grande do Sul e ao sudeste do estado de Santa Catarina (BOND-BUCKUP et al, 2008). Atualmente, os campos de altitude vêm sofrendo diretamente a ação antrópica resultante da pecuária extensiva, reflorestamentos com Pinus spp., plantio de soja, batata, pastagens, drenagens de áreas úmidas, represamentos, barragens e queimadas (BENCKE et al, 2003;BUCKUP et al, 2008;CHIARANI et al, 2019) A Região dos Campos de Cima da Serra, apesar de estar inserida dentro do Bioma Mata Atlântica, apresenta similaridades com o Bioma Pampa, compartilhando espécies de aves encontradas nestes dois ecossistemas. Isso torna os campos região muito especial, pois possui áreas de campo entremeadas com áreas úmidas e matas de Araucárias.…”