The marsh tapaculo (''Scytalopus iraiensis'') is a recently discovered

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

which belongs to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Scytalopus ''Scytalopus'' is a genus of small passerine birds belonging to the tapaculo group. They are found in South and Central America from Tierra del Fuego to Costa Rica, but are absent from the Amazon Basin. They inhabit dense vegetation at or near gr ...

'', a genus of

tapaculo The tapaculos or tapacolos are a family, Rhinocryptidae, of small suboscine passerine birds, found mainly in South America and with the highest diversity in the Andean regions. Three species ( Chocó, Tacarcuna, and the silvery-fronted) are ...

s. It is also known as the wetland tapaculo or tall-grass wetland tapaculo. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Description

It is a small, dumpy bird with broad tail-feathers and a total length of approximately 12.5 cm. The upperparts are plain blackish in colour while the underparts are dark grey. The flanks are slightly barred with brown, at least in young birds. The legs are reddish-brown and the bill is dark. The

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

includes a long series of short 'tchek' notes. The birds run rapidly and will fly short distances when flushed.

Distribution and habitat

It was first sighted on April 19, 1997 in wetlands beside the Iraí River near

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area ...

in southern Brazil. Until recently it was generally believed to be restricted to about two dozen sites in the eastern part of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, but has now been discovered in the highlands of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

– far north of its previously known range. It occurs in seasonally flooded

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

in the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s of rivers. It inhabits areas of tall (60–180 cm), dense vegetation dominated by

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

s (such as ''

Eleocharis ''Eleocharis'' is a virtually cosmopolitan genus of 250 or more species of flowering plants in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἕλειος (''heleios''), meaning "marsh dweller," and χάρις (''charis'' ...

'') and

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

es. It forages at or near ground-level and feeds on small

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s, mainly insects such as bugs and

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s. Breeding occurs in late spring.

Status and conservation

It is classified as an endangered species due to its small and declining population and destruction of its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. Threats include

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic condition ...

, sand extraction, burning of grassland and the flooding of land due to the construction of

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

s. Despite the recently discovered populations in Minas Gerais, some of which are within protected areas (the national parks of Serra do Cipó and Serra da Canastra, and the private reserve

Serra do Caraça Serra (Latin for " saw") may refer to: People * Serra (footballer) (born 1961), Portuguese footballer * Serra (surname) * Serra (given name) Cities, towns, municipalities Brazil *Serra, Espírito Santo, a city in the Greater Vitória area *Ampa ...

), it has been recommended not downgrading it to a lower threatened status, but it remains to be seen if this will be followed.

References

*BirdLife International (2007)
Species factsheet: Scytalopus iraiensis.
' Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20 June 2007 *Bornschein, Marcos Ricardo; Reinert, Bianca Luiza & Pichorim, Mauro (1998) ''Description, ecology and conservation of a new ''Scytalopus'' tapaculo from southern Brazil, with comments regarding the morphology of the family'', Ararajuba 6(1):3–36. Downloaded from http://www.ararajuba.org.br on 20 June 2007 *Vasconcelos, M. F.; Lopes, L. E.; Hoffmann, D.; Silveira, L. F. & Schunck, F. (2008) ''Range extension for Marsh Tapaculo ''Scytalopus iraiensis'' to the highlands of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with an overview of the species’ distribution.'' Bull. B.O.C. 128(2): 101–106 * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1260717 marsh tapaculo Birds of the Atlantic Forest Endemic birds of Brazil marsh tapaculo