Mata do Passarinho Reserve

Last updated April 23, 2019

The Mata do Passarinho Reserve (Portuguese: Songbird Forest) is an Atlantic Forest nature reserve in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Bahia. The reserve is the last known area to contain Stresemann's bristlefront (Merulaxis stresemanni), a bird which is endemic to Brazil and listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Portuguese is a Western Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau in China. As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India; in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka; in the Indonesian island of Flores; in the Malacca state of Malaysia; and the ABC islands in the Caribbean where Papiamento is spoken, while Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based Creole. Reintegrationists maintain that Galician is not a separate language, but a dialect of Portuguese. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as "Lusophone" (Lusófono).

The Atlantic Forest is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina, where the region is known as Selva Misionera.

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

History

The reserve was created in 2007 by Fundação Biodiversitas with the support of the American Bird Conservancy. In 2016 an additional 766 acres (310 ha) was added to bring the total area of the reserve to 2,352 acres (952 ha). The new area contains primary forest as well as secondary forest; areas that have not been grazed by cattle for over a decade.^[1]

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a non-profit membership organization with the mission of conserving native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. Its focus is on threats to birds in the Western Hemisphere—threats which include overuse of pesticides, urban sprawl, habitat destruction, and invasive species.

An old-growth forest — also termed primary forest or late seral forest — is a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance and thereby exhibits unique ecological features and might be classified as a climax community. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris.

A secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. It is distinguished from an old-growth forest, which has not recently undergone such disruption, and complex early seral forest, as well as third-growth forests that result from harvest in second growth forests. Secondary forest regrowing after timber harvest differs from forest regrowing after natural disturbances such as fire, insect infestation, or windthrow because the dead trees remain to provide nutrients, structure, and water retention after natural disturbances. However, often after natural disturbance the timber is harvested and removed from the system, in which case the system more closely resembles secondary forest rather than complex early seral forest.

Geography

The reserve contains one of the last remnants of the Atlantic forest in northern Minas Gerais and southern Bahia and is surrounded by farmland. As of 2016 only 8% of the forest remains which originally extended along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina..^[1]

Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern region of the country, occupying the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. Because of its geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal. It is the land of the folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo and, according to NASA, it has the purest air in the Americas. Its 410 km (254 mi) of sand, much sun, coconut palms and lagoons are responsible for the fame of beaches. Rocas Atoll, the only such feature in the Atlantic Ocean, is part of the state. The main economic activity is tourism, followed by the extraction of petroleum, agriculture, fruit growing and extraction of minerals, including considerable production of seasalt, among other economic activities. The state is famous for having many popular attractions such as the Cashew of Pirangi, the dunes and the dromedaries of Genipabu, the famous beaches of Ponta Negra, Maracajaú and Pipa's paradise, the Carnatal the largest off-season carnival in Brazil, the Forte dos Reis Magos is a sixteenth-century fortress, the hills and mountains of Martins, the Natal Dunes State Park the second largest urban park in the country, and several other attractions. The state is also closest to the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

Rio Grande do Sul is a state located in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth most populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is bordered clockwise by Santa Catarina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Uruguayan departments of Rocha, Treinta y Tres, Cerro Largo, Rivera and Artigas to the south and southwest, and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones to the west and northwest. The capital and largest city is Porto Alegre. The state has the highest life expectancy in Brazil, and the crime rate is considered to be low.

Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a country of South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Although it is one of only two landlocked countries in South America, the country has coasts, beaches and ports on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers that give exit to the Atlantic Ocean through the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica.

Wildlife

Many endangered birds are found in the reserve and it is the only area to house Stresemann's bristlefront with fifteen or fewer individuals known to exist in the wild. Bahia tyrannulet (Phylloscartes beckeri), Banded cotinga (Cotinga maculata), Brown-backed parrotlet (Touit melanonotus), Hook-billed hermit (Glaucis dohrnii) and Red-browed parrot (Amazona rhodocorytha) are some of the other endangered birds in the reserve. Mammals include the Maned three-toed sloth (Bradypus torquatus) and Yellow-breasted Capuchin (Sapajus xanthosternos).^[2]

The Bahia tyrannulet is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae. It is endemic to the state of Bahia in eastern Brazil. It is the most second recently described bird in the genus Phylloscartes after the Cinnamon-faced tyrannulet which was described two years later.

The banded cotinga is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae. It is endemic to south-east Brazil.

The brown-backed parrotlet also known as the black-backed parrotlet, the black-eared parrotlet, and Wied's parrotlet, is a small green parrot found in south-eastern Brazil from Bahia to southern São Paulo. It has a dark brown mantle and back, brown ear coverts, and red outer tail with back tips. They frequent humid forest from 500–1,000 m (1,600–3,300 ft), and are mostly found in small flocks of 3–20 birds.

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The Atlantic semi-deciduous forests, also known as the Atlantic interior forests, are a belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests that are part of the Atlantic Forests complex of eastern Brazil. The semi-deciduous forests form a transitional zone between the humid Atlantic moist forests which lie near the Atlantic coast, and the drier Caatinga shrublands, Atlantic dry forests, and Cerrado savannas of the interior.

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References

1 2 "Expansion of Brazilian reserve protects some of the world's rarest birds". Birdguides. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
↑ "Stresemann's Bristlefront Reserve". American Bird Conservancy. Retrieved 7 January 2016.

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[birdguides-1] 1 2 "Expansion of Brazilian reserve protects some of the world's rarest birds". Birdguides. Retrieved 7 January 2016.

[2] "Stresemann's Bristlefront Reserve". American Bird Conservancy. Retrieved 7 January 2016.