New Species of Tapaculo Discovered in South America
Posted on March 16, 2015
A new species of Tapaculo has been discovered in South America. Tapaculos are a family of songbirds found in South and Central America. Specimens of the bird had been misidentified in a museum drawer for over seventy years.
The specimens were collected in Colombia and Venezuela in the early 1940s by ornithologist Melbourne Carriker, Jr. They were misidentified as Scytalopus atratus nigricans. The previously unknown species was identified by Jorge Avendano of the University of the Llanos and his colleagues. It has been named Perija Tapaculo with the scientific name Scytalopus perijanus. It is described as a small bird with a "buffy belly, gray back, and brown nape." It has calls similar to other Tapaculos.
Tapaculo expert Niels Krabbe says in a statement, "While it was known that two species occurred in the Perijá mountains, it was a distinct surprise that the upper elevational form differs as much as 8-9% from its closest relatives. This emphasizes the importance of the Perijá mountains as an evolutionary center, and calls for further studies of its flora and fauna."
A research paper on the new Tapaculo was published here in The Auk: Ornithological Advances.
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