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Unravelling the migratory patterns of the rufous-tailed attila within the Neotropics using citizen science and traditional data sources

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Abstract

Citizen science data is a useful tool for the study of bird migration, especially in the tropics, where more traditional sources of biological data are scarce. In this paper, we studied the seasonal migration of the rufous-tailed attila Attila phoenicurus, a migratory Neotropical passerine that is supposed to breed in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We (1) compared the relative contribution of different sources of data (citizen science and traditional sources) to unravel the migratory patterns of the rufous-tailed attila, and (2) tested the hypothesis that the species is an austral migrant that breeds in the Atlantic Forest and winters in Amazonia. We used data from citizen science, literature, museum specimens, and traditional sound archives to investigate the seasonal distribution of the species. Vouchered records were checked for identification mistakes. We found that citizen science allowed the collection of a huge amount of data in a short period of time, providing in two decades almost eight times the number of occurrences of the rufous-tailed attila that have been obtained during two centuries of ornithological studies by the scientific community. Our results confirmed that the rufous-tailed attila is an austral migrant that breeds in a comparatively narrow area in the southern portion of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Contrastingly, the winter grounds of the species are spread across a vast area in Amazonia. Citizen science data is a powerful tool for the development of tropical ornithology, but its use requires the understanding of the specific virtues and limitations of each major online database.

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Acknowledgements

Núcleo Curucutu Team, Valder and Ivanildo Nascimento, Wesley Soares, Marco Antonio Rego, Aline Corrêa, Cláudio Nucitelli, Giulyana Benedicto, Kleber Rodrigues, Marcos Melo, Karlla Barbosa, Leo Malagoli, Vagner Cavarzere, and João Bosco helped during fieldwork. André Costa and José Augusto Nacif helped on gathering data from WikiAves. Antonina Selezneva elaborated the figures used in the Video S2. The following museum personnel kindly allowed us to study material under their care: Joel Cracraft, Peg Hart, and Paul Sweet (AMNH), Hein van Grouw and Mark Adams (BMNH), Bradley Livezey and Steve Rogers (CM), Marcos Rodrigues (DZUFMG), Ben Marks and John Bates (FMNH), James van Remsen-Jr. (LSUMZ), Marcos Raposo and Jorge Nacinovic (MNRJ), Alexandre Aleixo and Fátima Lima (MPEG), Luis Fábio Silveira (MZUSP), Ulf Johansson and Daniela Kalthoff (NRM), Gerald Mayr (SMF), Storrs Olson and Brian Schmidt (USNM), and Sylke Frahnert and Pascal Eckhoff (ZMB). The following museum personnel kindly sent to us data on specimens housed under their care: Alejandro Bodrati (MACN and MLP), Glayson Bencke (MCN/FZBRS), Marcelo Vasconcelos (MCNA), Carla Fontana (MCP), Pedro Scherer Neto (MHNCI), Hans-Martin Berg (NMW), and Karl-Ludwig Schuchmann (ZFMK). Luiz Antônio Gonzaga provided data on recordings housed in ASEC. We also thank to all those institutions and people that made available online their records through WikiAves, eBird, Internet Bird Collection, Fauna Paraguay, Xeno-Canto, Macaulay Library, Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Vielliard, Species Link, and VertNet portals. Wagner Nogueira kindly reviewed recordings from all vouchered citizen science data sources and provided constructive criticism on an earlier version of this manuscript. Alex Jahn presented valuable comments on the manuscript.

Funding

LEL received a grant from FAPEMIG (APQ-04082-10) and a research fellowship from CNPq (309660/2017-3), also benefiting from a collection study grant from the American Museum of Natural History. FS received financial support from the Fundação Grupo Boticário, having also received the donation of field equipment from the Birder’s Exchange Program of the American Birding Association.

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  1. Laboratório de Biologia Animal, IB, Universidade Federal de Viçosa–Campus Florestal, Florestal, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Leonardo Esteves Lopes

  2. Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos–CBRO, São Paulo, Brazil

    Fabio Schunck

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  1. Leonardo Esteves Lopes
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Correspondence to Leonardo Esteves Lopes.

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The procedures employed in this study complied with the laws of Brazil, where they were carried out. CEMAVE-ICMBio, Fundação Florestal de São Paulo, and Núcleo Curucutu provided the permits for conducting this study.

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Communicated by: Marcos Santos

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Lopes, L.E., Schunck, F. Unravelling the migratory patterns of the rufous-tailed attila within the Neotropics using citizen science and traditional data sources. Ornithol. Res. 30, 87–98 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-022-00087-0

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