THE NEST OF THE SCARLET-HEADED BLACKBIRD AMBLYRAMPHUS HOLOSERICEUS IN BRAZIL WITH NOTES ON ITS BREEDING BEHAVIOR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58843/ornneo.v34i2.1151Keywords:
clutch size, eggs, Icteridae, PantanalAbstract
Although it is a common marsh bird of central Brazil, there is little information about the reproductive biology of the Scarlet-headed Blackbird Amblyramphus holosericeus. Here we present data from observations made of two nests —found in November 2005 and March 2008— amid the vegetation of a flooded area in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, the central-west region of Brazil. The nests were built by the couple attached to marshy vegetation, at least 1 m above the surface of the water. The clutches consisted of two eggs with a greenish background color, spotted with fine brown striations and some small, spaced spots across the surface. In one of the nests the incubation period lasted 13 days. Both male and female cared for the chicks, who left the nest around 10 days after hatching. Despite its Least Concern global conservation status, the species could be experiencing a population decline, primarily due to the destruction of swamp areas and to frequent fires in much of the Pantanal region during drought periods.
References
Azpiroz, AB, M Alfaro & S Jiménez (2012) Lista Roja de las Aves del Uruguay: Una evaluación del estado de conservación de la avifauna nacional con base en los criterios de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. Dirección Nacional de Medio Ambiente, Montevideo, Uruguay.
De La Peña, MR (2013) Nidos y reproducción de las aves argentinas. Serie Naturaleza, Conservación y Sociedad N° 8. Ediciones Biológica, Santa Fe, Argentina.
Di Giacomo, AG (2005) Aves de la Reserva El Bagual. Pp 427–428 in Di Giacomo AG & SF Krapovickas (eds). Historia Natural y paisaje de la Reserva El Bagual: inventario de la fauna vertebrada y de las plantas vasculares de un área protegida del Chaco húmedo. Temas de Naturaleza y Conservación 4, Aves Argentinas, Asociación Ornitológica del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fernandes, IM, CA Signor & J Penha (2010) Biodiversidade no Pantanal de Poconé. Centro de Pesquisa do Pantanal, Cuiabá, Brazil.
Fernández, GJ, & ME Mermoz (2000) Effect of predation and cowbird parasitism on the nesting success of two sympatric neotropical marshbirds Wilson Journal of Ornithology 112: 354–364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1676/0043-5643(2000)112[0354:EOPACP]2.0.CO;2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1676/0043-5643(2000)112[0354:EOPACP]2.0.CO;2
Fernández, GJ, ME Mermoz, PE Lambias & EM Pujol (2007) Life history traits and breeding success of the scarlet-headed blackbird (Amblyramphus holosericeus) in the Argentinean pampas. Ornitologia Neotropical 18: 407–419
Fierro-Calderon, K, Loaiza-Muñoz, M, Sánchez-Martínez, MA, Ocampo, D, David, S, Greeney, HF, et al 2021 Methods for collecting data about the breeding biology of Neotropical birds. Journal of Field Ornithology 92: 315–341 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jofo.12383
Fraga, R (2020) Scarlet-headed Blackbird (Amblyramphus holosericeus), version 10. in del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, J Sargatal, DA Christie & E de Juana (eds). Birds of the World, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.schbla1.01 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.schbla1.01
Lees, AC, KV Rosenberg, V Ruiz-Gutierrez, S Marsden, TS Schulenberg,& AD Rodewald (2020) A roadmap to identifying and filling shortfalls in Neotropical ornithology The Auk 137: 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukaa048 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukaa048
Mason, P (1985) The nesting biology of some passerines of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ornithological Monographs 36: 954–972. https://doi.org/10.2307/40168328 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40168328
Mermoz, ME, DM Depalma, EM Charnelli & C Zilli (2021) First record of parasitism of scarlet-headed blackbird (Amblyramphus holosericeus) by the specialized screaming cowbird (Molothrus rufoaxillaris). El Hornero 36: 93–98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v36i1.434
Pereyra, JA (1934) El nido del Federal Amblyrhamphus holosericeus. El Hornero 5: 384–386. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v5i3.276
Rodrigues, SS, LE Lopes & MÂ Marini (2017) Breeding biology of Chalk-browed Mockingbird Mimus saturninus in a natural savanna of central Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 25: 237–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03544402 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03544402
Simon, JE & S Pacheco (2005) On the standardization of nest descriptions of Neotropical birds. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 13: 143–154.
Xiao, H, Y Hu, Z Lang, B Fang, W Guo, Q Zhang, X Pan & X Lu (2017) How much do we know about the breeding biology of Bird species in the world?. Journal of Avian Biology 48: 513–518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.00934 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00934
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Anita Studer, Marcelo Sousa, Gwyneth Stoudmann
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), that allows others unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction, providing the original author and source are credited.
