ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bird Sci.
Sec. Bird Movements and Migration
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbirs.2025.1534188
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in Research of Understudied Bird Migration SystemsView all articles
Spot-billed Toucanet Selenidera maculirostris (Aves: Ramphastidae): importance of citizen and scientific science in investigating its occurrence in modified environments around the largest urban area in South America
Provisionally accepted
- 1Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos - CBRO, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2Independent researcher, São Paulo, Brazil
- 3Coordenação de Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil
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Toucans and toucanets are widely distributed in the Neotropical Region. Some species perform regional movements in search of food resources, but little is known about this behavior and and the use of modified habitats. The Spot-billed Toucanet Selenidera maculirostris is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The species is threatened with extinction in the state of São Paulo (Brazil) due to deforestation. We compiled historical and current data on the occurrence of the species in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR), the largest urban area in South America, to investigate the hypothesis that this species performs seasonal regional movements between preserved forests and modified areas during the autumn and winter. Data from the literature, online platforms and a 17-year field study, produced a total of 200 records since 1889, for 45 locations, indicating that the species has wide occurrence in the SPMR, being common of the Serra do Mar. It occurs in the preserved forests of the southern portion of the SPMR throughout the year and is more common in the altered and fragmented forests near the Serra do Mar in autumn-winter. These possible seasonal movements between more preserved areas and altered areas are probably in search of food, a behavior that needs further study since the forests of the SPMR have been rapidly destroyed in recent years.
Keywords: Brazil, São Paulo, Serra do mar, Birds, Threatened species, Endemic species
Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schunck, Rodrigues and Rego. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fabio Schunck, Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos - CBRO, São Paulo, Brazil
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