ML568811431

Media notes

Announcement at end of original recording says 09:01 for time, which was 1 minute 40 seconds from start time.

Observation details

Along north side of Rio Formosa on Trilha da Brigadista. I had a single, very poor cut of Cone-billed Tanager song that I hoped might attract one. I had almost given up, but Edimar said to be patient. Eventually, I noticed a few Burnished-buff Tanagers coming to a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Another bird low and close gave a call note that I did not recognize. I focussed our group's attention on the area, played the Cone-billed Tanager song, and then there it was right in front of us, a male Cone-billed Tanager at eye-level. We studied the bird, noting its prominent bluish-white, conical bill, white underparts, black head, breast and upperparts, black markings on the undertail coverts, and a small, barely noticeable patch of white tucked in at the base of the primaries. The bird eventually flew to an open snag and began to sing its finch-like song for over two minutes. The song is about three seconds long, with six or so introductory notes followed by a lower then a higher trill. The whitish, finch-like bill, the singing posture and behavior, and apparently dark eye, not red as I had expected based on photographs of its congener, Black-and-white Tanager (Conothraupis speculigera), all had me wondering whether the Cone-billed Tanager really belonged in the same genus. In his more amplified description of mesoleuca, the species epithet for Cone-billed Tanager, the prominent French ornithologist Jacques Berlioz pointed out the possibility that it might be a finch allied to Sporophila, the genus of seedeaters. This species was found here in 2003 after not being seen since described in 1938. Edimar took us to the area where it had been observed recently. The cut added here is from a cassette tape-recording (Sony TCM-5000 and Sennheiser ME-66 mic with K6 power). At the time, I transferred and saved as mp3.

Additional species

• Large-billed Antwren Herpsilochmus longirostris