New distribution records of Anairetes alpinus (Carriker, 1933) (Aves, Tyrannidae), a highly specialized and endangered bird of Polylepis forests in Junín, Peru

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Check List 14 (3): 499–504 https://doi.org/10.15560/14.3.499 New distribution records of Anairetes alpinus (Carriker, 1933) (Aves, Tyrannidae), a highly specialized and endangered bird of Polylepis forests in Junín, Peru Harold Rusbelth Quispe-Melgar1, Wendy Carolay Navarro Romo1, Fressia Nathalie Ames‑Martínez1, Vladimir Fernando Camel Paucar1 and C. Steven Sevillano-Ríos2,3 1 Universidad Continental, Laboratorio de Biotecnología y Biología Molecular, Av. San Carlos 1980, urbanización San Antonio, Huancayo, Junín, Peru. 2 Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850, USA. 3 Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Corresponding author: Harold Rusbelth Quispe-Melgar, Abstract The Ash-breasted Tit-tyrant, Anairetes alpinus (Carriker, 1933) (Aves, Tyrannidae), is an endangered and highly specialized bird that inhabits the Polylepis forests (Rosaceae) of Peru and Bolivia. Here, we report 2 new localities in the department of Junín, central Peru, where it was detected in forests dominated by Polylepis canoi, P. rodolfo-vasquezii, and a third undescribed Polylepis species. We conclude that a residential population is the more likely possibility although the possibility of dispersal individuals should also be considered. Key words Andean birds; climate change; conservation; endangered species; High Andes; mountain ecosystems; source-sink habitats. Academic editor: Galo Buitrón-Jurado | Received 6 December 2017 | Accepted 14 April 2018 | Published 4 May 2018 Citation: Quispe-Melgar HR, Navarro Romo WC, Ames-Martínez FN, Camel Paucar VF, Sevillano-Ríos CS (2018) New distribution records of Anairetes alpinus (Carriker, 1933) (Aves, Tyrannidae), a highly specialized and endangered bird of Polylepis forests in Junín, Peru. Check List 14 (3): 499–504. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.3.499 Introduction The Ash-breasted Tit-tyrant, Anairetes alpinus (Carriker, 1933) (Aves, Tyrannidae), is a highly specialized bird species that inhabits the Polylepis forests (Rosaceae) of Peru and Bolivia (Fjeldså 1993, Fjeldså 2002, Lloyd 2008a, b, Birdlife International 2018). Given its small geographic range of occurrence and small population size, currently estimated at 150–700 individuals, this species has been categorized as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of threatened species (Birdlife International 2018). Its restricted elevational range (3,700–4,600 m) (Schulenberg et al. 2007) makes this species particularly vulnerable to various human activities that occur at these elevations, such as heavy grazing, uncontrolled fire, and local changes in land use (Fjeldså and Kessler 2004, Gómez 2009). These activities have been postulated as the main drivers of the ongoing habitat loss and degradation (Renison et al. 2002, Purcell and Brelsford 2004, Renison et al. 2010, Sylvester et al. 2017), simultaneously preventing the natural regeneration of Polylepis (Gómez 2009, Morales 2017, Morales et al. 2018). In Peru and Bolivia, roughly 3 main areas where this species occurs have been identified (Fig. 1). The Copyright Quispe-Melgar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 500 Check List 14 (3) Figure 1. Records of the presence of Anairetes alpinus. Triangles indicate the presence of the A. alpinus alpinus while the circles indicate A. alpinus bolivianus. Records were taken from the eBird database (eBird 2017), GBIF (GBIF Secretariat 2017) and Greeney (2013). The white (Alhuanya) and black (Tasta) asterisks indicate the new records in department of Junín, central Peru. northernmost population occurs along the high Andes of northern Peru, mainly in the mountain chains of the Cordilleras Blanca, Huayhuash, La Viuda, Central, and Chonta (Sevillano-Ríos et al. in press). There, A. a. alpinus inhabits small, high-elevation Polylepis patches of apparently high-quality habitat (Sevillano-Ríos and Rodewald 2017), where several resident groups of up to approximately 10 individuals can easily be observed (Sevillano-Ríos 2016, CSSR per. obs.). In southern Peru, in the departments of Abancay and Cuzco, A. a. bolivianus occurs along the Cordilleras Vilcabamba and Vilcanota (Lloyd 2008 a, b, Lloyd and Marsden 2008). Here, some of the principal populations are estimated to be about 20–30 individuals (Engblom et al. 2002), although the densities seem to be low (ca 4.9 individuals/km2) (Lloyd 2008a). Finally, the southernmost populations occur mainly in the Cordilleras Real and Apolobamba, Bolivia, where A. a. bolivianus also occurs; it was estimated to be roughly 150 individuals after visiting 5 different localities (Gómez 2009). These 3 main areas maintain the core populations of the A. alpinus, where different conservation strategies have been proposed to save this and many other threatened birds of the Polylepis forests (BirdLife International 2018). However, areas in between these core populations are poorly studied. Our discovery of new localities is important, not only for a better understanding of the distributional patterns of this species but to understand its ecology and to locate new areas for its conservation. We report 2 new localities in the department of Junín, central Peru. Methods To assess the diversity of high Andean birds in central Peru, fieldwork was conducted between May 2016 and October 2017 at 23 locations (17 in the department of Junín, 3 in Huancavelica, and 3 in Lima). At all these sites, typical high-Andean ecosystems (3,450–4,550 m above sea level) such as Polylepis forest, mixed shrublands, and puna pastures were surveyed. Each site was visited for 3 or 4 consecutive days twice over 2 years. Point counts of 10 minutes duration were made, separated by a minimum distance of 150 m. These took place in the mornings (06:00–12:00) and afternoons (14:00–18:00) and were complemented by mist-netting efforts (12 m; n = 2) placed in open areas within the forests to passively capture passing birds. Results New records. Peru, Junín, province of Concepción, district of Andamarca, Alhuanya (11°41ʹ30ʺ S, 074°54ʹ01ʺ W, 4100 m elev.), observ. by H.R.Quispe-Melgar, 13 Quispe-Melgar et al. | New distribution records of Anairetes alpinus in Peru 501 Figures 2, 3. First record of Anairetes alpinus in Junín, Peru. 2. Specimen captured in Alhuanya. 3. Forest of Polylepis rodolfo-vasquezii and Polylepis sp. where 1 individual was captured. Human impact is observed by felling, burning and livestock, also rocky sliding. (Photographs by HRQM.) July 2017, 11:15 h, 1 adult captured (Figs 2, 3). Peru, Junín, province of Satipo, district of Pampa Hermosa, Tasta (11°26ʹ05ʺ S, 074°53ʹ56ʺ W; 3,900 m elev.) observ. by H.R. Quispe-Melgar, 21 September 2017, 07:00 h, 2 adults (Figs 4, 5). The spec (...truncated)