Logo image
Back
A new genus and species of tanager (Passeriformes, Thraupidae) from the lower Yungas of western Bolivia and southern Peru
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A new genus and species of tanager (Passeriformes, Thraupidae) from the lower Yungas of western Bolivia and southern Peru

Daniel F Lane, Miguel Angel Aponte Justiniano, Ryan S Terrill, Frank E Rheindt, Luke B Klicka, Gary H Rosenberg, C. Jonathan Schmitt and Kevin J Burns
Ornithology, v 138(4), pp 1-17
29 Oct 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab059
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://zenodo.org/record/5710688View
Open

Abstract

bamboo specialist especialista en bambú intratropical migrant migrante intratropical Neotropicos Neotropics oscine passerine paserino oscino RESEARCH ARTICLE South America Sudamerica
We describe a colorful and distinctive new species of tanager from the lower slopes of the Andes of southeastern Peru and western Bolivia. The species was first noted from southeastern Peru in 2000, but little of its natural history was uncovered until the 2011 discovery of a breeding population in deciduous forest in an intermontane valley, the Machariapo valley, in Bolivia. This species appears to be an intratropical migrant, breeding in deciduous forest during the rainy season (November–March) and spending the dry season dispersed along the lower slopes of the Andes, apparently favoring Guadua bamboo-dominated habitats in both seasons. Phylogenetic evidence suggests this tanager is embedded within a clade of thraupids that includes Ramphocelus, Coryphospingus, Loriotus, Tachyphonus, and related genera in the subfamily Tachyphoninae. Within this subfamily, the new species falls in a clade with two monotypic genera, Eucometis penicillata (Gray-headed Tanager) and Trichothraupis melanops (Black-goggled Tanager). There is strong support for a sister relationship between the new tanager and T. melanops, but because all three species in this clade are highly distinctive phenotypically, we propose erecting a new genus and species name for the new tanager. LAY SUMMARY We discovered a new species of tanager, from the foothills of the Andes mountains in Peru and Bolivia, which we name the Inti Tanager. The name “Inti” is the Quechua (a language indigenous to the region) word that means “sun,” referring to the bright yellow color of the bird. Unlike most new bird species discovered recently, which typically differ only subtly from their closest relatives, this species is so different in appearance and genetics that we also described a new genus just for it. The tanager family, to which the new species belongs, is one of the largest bird families in the world (with about 377 species), restricted almost entirely to the American tropics and including many beautifully colorful species. We uncovered a surprising piece of natural history about the Inti Tanager: it migrates from its breeding grounds in a little-explored valley in Bolivia to “winter” along the lower slopes of the Andes in Peru. Such migration within the tropics is rare within the tanagers. That this unique, bright yellow bird could have gone unnoticed by ornithologists until recently attests to the remoteness of the areas where it lives and to the importance of continued biological surveys off-the-grid in South America.

Metrics

19 Record Views
5 citations in Web of Science
1 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#15 Life on Land

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Ornithology
Logo image