Neotropical Ornithology: An Overview

Abstract

The papers in this monograph are reviewed in the context of the progressive stages of ornithological knowledge and of current neotropical ornithological research in general. Active fields of study not represented in these pages are listed, to reflect more completely the breadth of research on birds of the neotropics in the 1980's. RESUMEN. En esta monografia se repasan los articulos en los contextos de las etapas progresivas del conocimiento ornitologico y de las investigaciones de ornitologia neotropical, en general. Se mencionan los campos de investigation activos que no estan representados en estas paginas para reflejar de la manera mas completa posible la amplitud de las investigaciones en aves neotropicales en la decade de 1980. The title of this final chapter could be construed as either an of the papers in this monograph or an of neotropical ornithology as a whole, as a scientific discipline. Obviously the latter interpretation, were it to be attempted in depth, would demand much more space than can be allotted here. Yet the question naturally arises: to what extent is the monograph itself, as a collection of papers by many of the active workers in the field, an overview of our present knowledge of neotropical birds? To answer that question I must attempt to synthesize, to some extent, the two approaches mentioned in my first sentence. Some readers may find this chapter a bit opinionated, but, as any good journalist will verify, strict objectivity is a myth. Two recent publications are germane to this overview. Haffer (1983)* has attempted, with notable success, a survey of Results of Modern Ornithological Research in Tropical (title of English abstract). His stated purpose in publishing this article, in German, was to introduce the subject to Europeans unfamiliar with the predominantly American literature of neotropical ornithology. It will nevertheless prove to be a valuable summary for American readers fluent in German. Some of the most useful parts of the paper demand little linguistic facility, such as the lists of new species of birds described from South America between 1951 and 1981 (with a separate list for Peru!). Somewhat similar to the present monograph is Mammalian Biology in South (Mares and Genoways 1982; see also the comprehensive review by Patterson [1983]). Unlike its avian counterpart, the mammal volume consists of papers presented at a symposium, so that workers (especially those from South America) who could not attend the meeting are unrepresented. Furthermore, the focus of the symposium was continental South America (although some authors naturally mentioned other neotropical areas in passing), whereas onefifth of the papers in this ornithological monograph concern themselves with birds of Middle America and the West Indies. Some readers may find it of interest to compare the kinds and levels of knowledge of neotropical birds and mammals; to mention only one obvious difference, karyotypes play a major role in the literature of mammalian systematics, but have been little used in ornithology (see Shields 1982). There are three basic and successive stages of knowledge of birds that must precede all other aspects of the study of ornithology. These are (A) the Inventory stage: the kinds of birds that exist, (B) the Classification stage: how these birds are related to one another (and, thus, how we organize our information about them), and (C) the Descriptive Zoogeography stage: where these kinds of birds are found and where they are not found. Knowledge of these three factors, as complete as possible, must precede any analytical or interpretive studies. In these respects, our knowledge of neotropical birds lags far behind our knowledge of those of North American and western Europe. There, for example, our data base for category C is so thorough * References with dates will be found in the Literature Cited at the end of this chapter, references without dates indicate papers in the