Birds, Nangaritza River Valley, Zamora Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador: update and revision

Abstract

The remote Nangaritza Valley of southeast Ecuador has high bird diversity, combining Amazonian birds with species typical of eastern Andean slopes and foothills, a small number of taxa endemic to the Cordillera del Cóndor region of southern Ecuador and northern Peru, as well as a few forms from the dry Marañón valley region. Here, we update and review avifaunal records from the Nangaritza Valley, comparing them with the bird fauna of the Cordillera del Kutukú and making a brief assessment of bird conservation in the area. To date, 535 species are known to occur in the Nangaritza Valley, including eight species endemic or near endemic to the outer ridges and adjacent Andean slopes in southeast Ecuador and northeast Peru. Conservation perspectives in the area are not favorable owing to increasing deforestation, expansion of the agricultural frontier and mining concessions, which threaten eight regional endemic species.