Comparação entre medidas corporais de aves provenientes do cerrado e populações isoladas de regiões adjacentes

Abstract

Basileuterus flaveolus, Formicivura rufa, Mimus saturninus, Hemitriccus margaritaceiventer and Lepidocolaptes angustirostris are bird species with a population distribution in the Brazilian Cerrado, presenting also isolated populations in regions adjacent to it. The current work aimed to study the variation in body measurements of these birds in Brazil in order to test the hypothesis that their populations differ in one or more body measurements due to the active action of environmental factors, relating the results to previous analyses of passerines and non-passerines and thus observe whether they follow a similar pattern of differentiation. In this work we used adult birds from the collection of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi - MPEG. Preliminary information (e.g., sex, locality, habitat) was taken from their identification tags, allowing the mapping of the birds according to their locations for grouping by biogeographic regions and subsequent testing. The following measurements were primarily selected: total culm length, length from nostril to beak tip, beak height at base, beak width, closed wing length, tail length, tail graduation, tarsus length, central toe nail length, and rear toe nail length, which were submitted to repeatability testing, with the intention of verifying the accuracy of preliminary measurements, and thus approve or disapprove these measurements. The great majority of the measurements showed high repeatability, while other measurements (total culm, central toe nail length, and rear toe nail length of Basileuterus flaveolus; closed wing length of Formicivura rufa; beak width and tail length of Hemitriccus margaritaceiventer) were not approved because they were below the average precision required for the measurements.