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William Price | all galleries >> Galleries >> Araguaia Valley, Central Brazil December 2008–January 2009 & July 2010 > hybrid Red-capped x Crimson-fronted Cardinal
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03-JAN-2009

hybrid Red-capped x Crimson-fronted Cardinal

Barreira do Campo, Pará, January 2009

Comments from Crimson-fronted Cardinal Paroaria baeri photos

Regularly observed at both Caseara and Araguacema, Tocantins, and on the left bank of the rio Araguaia, in Pará, opposite these localities. P. baeri is distributed very locally in central Brazil, in north-west Goiás, where it apparently reaches south as far as Registro do Araguaia (sound-recordings by L. E. Lopes, archived at www.xeno-canto.org), north along the middle and upper rio Araguaia in Tocantins and Pará, as well as west through far north-east Mato Grosso to the rios upper Xingu and Cristalino (Ridgely & Tudor 1989, Sick 1997). Two races are recognised, with P. b. xinguensis Sick, 1950, being confined to the upper Xingu drainage; it differs from nominate, P. b. baeri Hellmayr, 1907, which occurs over the bulk of the species’ range, in having most of the throat black and only a dark crimson malar streak. It is perhaps rather strange, given this race’s even more restricted and largely inaccessible range, that published illustrations of P. baeri have almost always depicted xinguensis (e.g. Ridgely & Tudor 1989, Sigrist 2008). Ridgely & Tudor (1989) stated that the bill of P. baeri is all black, although Hellmayr (1907) described the female holotype, from Leopoldina (= Aruanã, Goiás), as having the bill largely black with the ‘basal half of the lower mandible dull reddish’. We have examined photographs of birds identified as baeri from the following localities, listed south to north: Pousada Kuryala, Mato Grosso: B. W. Davis, archived on www.surfbirds.com), São Félix do Araguaia, Mato Grosso (Endrigo 2008), Caseara (myself and A. Grosset) and Araguacema (myself), both Tocantins, all of which show a more or less extensive pale (whitish to whitish-grey) base to the lower mandible, a feature considered indicative of Red-capped Cardinal P. gularis (Ridgely & Tudor 1989). With the exception of one individual from Barreira do Campo, Pará, all of these birds are, in other respects, quite normal-plumaged P. b. baeri, albeit showing some minor variation in head pattern. Birds presumably similar to these were identified as being gularis by Buzzetti (2004). The bird photographed (see following photos) at Barreira do Campo showed an obvious, white and near-complete collar and red extending from the forehead almost across the entire nape, and appears to have been a hybrid baeri × gularis, as the red of the head was darker than in P. gularis and its pattern otherwise recalled any P. baeri. Ridgely & Tudor (1989) speculated that these two might intergrade, but were unable to point to any specimens showing evidence of this, nor comment on possible overlap. These issues do indeed still require elucidation, as evidence of hybridisation has not been documented in the literature; Hellmayr (1929) mentioned an adult female gularis from Conceição do Araguaia, Pará, a male from Itaguatins, Tocantins, and another female from Filadélfia, Tocantins, all of which localities are relatively close to the known range of baeri. All of these specimens apparently closely accord with nominate gularis. Sick (1997) suggested that P. baeri, P. gularis and Red-cowled Cardinal P. dominicana should be considered allospecies.

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