Territorial behaviour and breeding in the Southern Antpipit Corythopis delalandi (Aves: Rhynchocyclidae) in southeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The Southern Antpipit is a terrestrial insectivore passerine that ranges in the undergrowth of semideciduous forests in central South America. Despite the historical interest on its disputed systematic position, no detailed study about its natural history is available. In this paper, we studied its territorial and breeding biology in southeastern Brazil. We studied colour-banded birds and closely monitored the nests found, estimating the home range using two distinct methods, the Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) and the Kernel Density Estimator (KDE). The nest (n = 4) is a dome, somewhat elliptical in shape and with a side entrance, placed on the forest litter. Its structural layer is built with unidentified vegetable fibres, leaf petioles and horsehair fungus, and the external decorative layer is built with dry leaves and mosses. No well-defined lining layer was observed. Two eggs are usually laid and incubation, done solely by the female, lasts for 17 days. Both parents feed the nestlings, which fledge when 14–15 days old. Our data, together with citizen science data, reveal that the breeding season extends from August to December, therefore from the end of the dry season to the middle of the wet season. A mean home range size of 1.08 ± 0.44 ha was estimated using the MCP and of 1.42 ± 0.47 ha using the KDE (n = 9). The home range is defended against conspecifics, thus characterising an all-purpose territory, which is hold throughout the year, possibly during the entire reproductive life of the male.

KEYWORDS:

• Atlantic Forest
• home range
• life history
• nests
• neotropics
• terrestrial insectivore bird

Acknowledgements

Permits for conducting this study were provided by CEMAVE/ICMBio (59596-1) and CEUA-UFV (55/2017). The Universidade Federal de Viçosa allowed our study in their campi. Part of the botanical material was identified by A. F. Silva and J. A. Meira-Neto. Finally, we thanks to D. C. Bartholomeu, M. F. Sossai, P. S. Ferreira, A. O. Barros, E. C. Acevedo Nieto, N. R. Neves, A. Silva, L. Oliveira, L.J. Ferreira, A.M. Medeiros, G. Oliveira, and Y. Dylan for their help during fieldwork. N. R. Neves, E. C. A. Nieto, and the late J. E. Simon provided unpublished information about birds studied by them.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, who provided a study fellowship to GMM [PIBIC/CNPq]and to RR [510134/93-9], as well as a research fellowship to LEL 309660/2017-3]. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001, and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (study fellowship to DFF).