The distribution and conservation status of the Bearded TachuriPolystictus pectoralis

Abstract

SummaryThe Bearded TachuriPolystictus pectoralisoccupies lowland grasslands with scrubby vegetation, generally near water, in the Andean grasslands of Colombia at two sites (threatened racebogotensis), savannas in eastern Colombia and the lowland and tepui grasslands of mainly southern Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana and northern Brazil (racebrevipennis), reappearing south of the Amazon in central-southern Brazil, eastern Bolivia (no recent records), Paraguay, Uruguay and northern and central-eastern Argentina (nominatepectoralis). It is an austral summer visitor (October/November to February/April) to central-east Argentina, nesting (commonly in thistles) around December, clutch-size three. It feeds on insects by perch-gleaning, sallying, hover-gleaning and still-hunting. It is unobtrusive and must be commonly overlooked, and in some localities may be moderately well represented. Overall, however, it is scarce and appears to be very patchy in occurrence; grassland habitats within its range have been converted wholesale to farming. New quantitative criteria support earlier qualitative judgement that the species is probably not (yet) threatened, but that it merits near-threatened status. Suggestions that one or all of its three subspecies may be good species are premature; it is not even clear how distinct these forms are as subspecies.