The Brasília tapaculo (''Scytalopus novacapitalis'') is a species of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
in the family
Rhinocryptidae. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
to southern
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Brasília tapaculo is most closely related to the
Planalto tapaculo (''Scytalopus pachecoi''). Those two species,
rock tapaculo (''S. petrophilus''), and
Diamantina tapaculo (''S. diamantinensis'') form a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
. It was originally thought to be closely related to the
white-breasted tapaculo (''Eleoscytalopus indigoticus'').
[Krabbe, N. and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Brasilia Tapaculo (''Scytalopus novacapitalis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bratap1.01 retrieved April 27, 2021][Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 19 January 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 19, 2021]
Description
The Brasília tapaculo is long. One male weighed and two unsexed specimens weighed . The adult is blue-gray above and whitish to pale gray below. The lower back and rump are reddish brown and the vent is rufous with gray barring. The juvenile has not been described.
[
]
Distribution and habitat
The Brasília tapaculo is found in disjunct areas in eastern Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian States of Brazil, state located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District (Brazil), Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Ge ...
, the Distrito Federal, and western Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
. It inhabits gallery forest
A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...
, primarily permanently flooded areas with '' Blechnum'' ferns and ''Euterpe
Euterpe (; , from + ) was one of the Muses in Greek mythology, presiding over music. In late Classical times, she was named muse of lyric poetry. She has been called "Giver of delight" by ancient poets.
Mythology
Euterpe was born as one of t ...
'' palms. It has a fairly narrow elevational range of .[
]
Behavior
Feeding
The Brasília tapaculo forages on the ground for insects, spiders, and centipedes.[
]
Breeding
The only information on the Brasília tapaculo's breeding phenology
Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation).
Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...
is that a specimen collected in July had active gonads.[
]
Vocalization
The Brazilia tapaculo's song is an "ewk" note repeated for up to a minut
Its alarm call is a series of sharp "che-te-te" notes. Another call is a fast series of "chip" notes that increase in volume.[
]
Status
The IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
has assessed the Brasília tapaculo as Endangered. Its range of approximately 72 km2 (28 mi2) is greatly fragmented and under continued threat of degradation. It does, however, occur in at least six protected areas.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q899144
Brasília tapaculo
Birds of the Cerrado
Endemic birds of Brazil
Brasília tapaculo
Brasília tapaculo
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot