Old World vagrants on Fernando de Noronha, including two additions to the Brazilian avifauna, and predictions for potential future Palearctic vagrants

Abstract

The archipelago of Fernando de Noronha off north-east Brazil is well known to ornithologists as a hotspot for transatlantic vagrants, primarily for Palearctic-African migrants, but also for its two endemic passerines, Noronha Vireo Vireo gracilirostris and Noronha Elaenia Elaenia ridleyana. We present important new vagrant records including two species not previously recorded in Brazil, both of them from the Palearctic, of which one—Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus—represents a first record for South America. We list c.50 Palearctic species documented from mid-Atlantic islands, the Caribbean region, Trinidad & Tobago or from other mainland South American countries, which are potential future vagrants to Brazil, particularly given improved ornithological coverage of Fernando de Noronha or the even less well-watched archipelago of Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo (St Peter and St Paul).