First record of Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Phibalura flavirostris Vieillot, 1816 (Aves, Cotingidae) in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Check List 14 (2): 495–497 https://doi.org/10.15560/14.2.495 First record of Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Phibalura flavirostris Vieillot, 1816 (Aves, Cotingidae) in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil Allan Corral, Cláudia Liz Rodrigues Silva, Cristiano Marcelo Espinola Carvalho, Kwok Chiu Cheung, Luciana Mendes Valério Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, Ciências Biológicas, CEP 79117-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil. Corresponding author: Allan Corral, Abstract The Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Phibalura flavirostris, is a rare Neotropical bird. Its geographic distribution in Brazil is limited to the country’s south and south-east regions and a small area in the center of the state of Goiás. However, an adult individual was recorded in a fragment of Cerrado in the municipality of Campo Grande, in central Mato Grosso do Sul, indicating an expansion in the distribution of the species in Brazil. Keywords Geographical distribution; Neotropical birds; new occurrence. Academic editor: Caio J. Carlos | Received 23 December 2016 | Accepted 30 March 2018 | Published 27 April 2018 Citation: Corral A, Rodrigues CL, Carvalho CME, Cheung KC, Valério LM (2018) First record of Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Phibalura flavirostris Vieillot, 1816 (Aves, Cotingidae) in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Check List 14 (2): 495–497. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.2.495 Introduction The Swallow-tailed Cotinga, Phibalura flavirostris Vieillot, 1816, is a representative of the family Contingidae, a typically Neotropical group of well-diversified birds (Sick 1997). The diet of P. flavirostris consists of fruits and insects caught on short flights around the landing point (Snow 1982). The nest is composed of lichens and mosses; it is difficult to identify and provides camouflage for the offspring, whose immature plumage resembles the color of lichens (Avalos 2010). Phibalura flavirostris is the only Brazilian cotingid with a long forked tail. The geographic distribution of this species covers part of south and southeastern Brazil, especially the southern end of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and a small region in the center of the state of Goiás (Gwynne et al. 2010). According to Birdlife International (2015), the geographical distribution of P. flavirostris covers parts of Argentina and Paraguay, in addition to Brazil (Fig. 1). The species is probably a migrant to Rio Grande do Sul, where it occurs during the summer breeding season (Ridgely and Tudor 1994). Generally rare, this species is classified as Near Threatened (Birdlife International 2015). It is suspected that populations of P. flavirostris are decreasing, mainly due to habitat loss, as this species depends on secondary vegetation, areas with partial to high levels of afforestation such as the interior of forest patches, and forest edges (Ridgely and Tudor 1994). Methods The record was part of a systematic survey in forest fragments of Cerrado located in the urban area of the municipality of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. Copyright Corral 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. 496 Check List 14 (2) 60°W 50°W 40°W Mato Grosso do Sul 20°S C A 30°S B 100 0 100 200 300 km Figure 1. Distribution of the Swallow-tailed Cotinga Phibalura flavirostris: (A) resident populations; (B) breeding grounds of possible migratory populations; (C) record in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Adapted from Birdlife International (2015). Results New record. Brazil: state of Mato Grosso do Sul: Campo Grande: São Vicente Institute, Dom Bosco Catholic University (20°23ʹ09.32ʺ S, 054°36ʹ29.41ʺ W, 636 m above sea level), observed by Allan Corral, 10:32 a.m., 17 May 2015, 1 male individual (Fig. 2). The sighting was a Cerrado fragment located in an urban area located about 10 km from downtown Campo Grande. The Cerrado fragment, which is 191 ha, consists of protected areas of Cerrado vegetation surrounded by pastureland. Identification. The bird was identified by its characteristically long, forked tail and the color of its plumage; the male of P. flavirostris has a black crown and a distinctive white band on the sides of the head (Gwynne et al 2010). Discussion The status of P. flavirostris in Mato Grosso do Sul is still uncertain given the scant information on this species. Therefore, aspects such as migration, breeding season, and behavioral characteristics require further studies, considering its uncertain conservation status (Peixoto et al. 2013). The only record of P. flavirostris in Mato Grosso do Sul was in a large forest fragment in Novo Horizonte do Sul in May 2011 (Della-Flora 2011). Furthermore, the sighting in Novo Horizonte do Sul occurred in May increases the likelihood that this was a winter migratory movement in this region. Phibalura flavirostris is distributed primarily in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil, as well as in high regions of the country, as this species prefers altitudes between 400 and 1,200 m, but varying according to the season (Hennessey 2011). Snow (1982) stated that the migration of P. flavirostris is related to the altitude of habitats, because it seeks higher areas such as rocky and mountainous regions during the breeding season. According to Smith et al. (1999), P. flavirostris presents sedentary behavior in the mountainous regions of Bolivia, while in southeastern Brazil, this species is migratory. The fact that this species has recently been recorded in an area far northwest of its previously known distribution might be attributed to the connection between the Bolivian portion of the Andes and the Brazilian south- Corral et al. | Swallow-tailed Cotinga in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil 497 study in the area. We are also indebted to Nicolle Batista Faria Prado and Klysman Fernandes Ferreira de Almeida for their assistance in the field work, particularly the reconnaissance and identification of the area. Authors’ Contributions AC photographed and identified species; AC, CLRS, CMEC, KCC, and LMV wrote the text. References Figure 2. Swallow-tailed Cotinga Phibalura flavirostris, 17 May 2015, São Vicente Institute, Dom Bosco Catholic University, municipality of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. (Photographed by Allan Corral). east, which was interrupted in the Pleistocene by the Chaco and Pantanal and, more recently, by rural areas (Hanagarth 1993). Avalos (2011) elucidates the question of the distribution of the species, ascribing its possible distribution in areas of the Cerrado. Therefore, the distribution of P. flavirostris is subject to factors of both biogeography and environmental pressure, which affect both the expansion and restriction of this species’ geographical distribution. Our new record expands the known d (...truncated)