RESUMO
Resumen La cordillera del Kutukú está ubicada al sureste de Ecuador y se encuentra parcialmente aislada de la cordillera de los Andes. Realizamos cinco expediciones a este macizo, donde obtuvimos de manera directa información referente a la riqueza de aves. Además, con el fin de generar un listado más completo, realizamos una recopilación de registros publicados y revisamos colecciones de museos ecuatorianos. En total registramos 501 especies de aves, en un rango entre 500 - 2300 m de altitud. Encontramos trece especies con nuevas ampliaciones de distribución altitudinal y/o latitudinal. Veintiséis especies de aves (5.2%) están en alguna categoría de amenaza a su conservación, a nivel mundial y nacional. Las escasas vías de acceso, sumadas a las políticas de ingreso al territorio, por parte de la etnia Shuar, han favorecido la preservación de los bosques, especialmente aquellos por encima de los 1800 m. Es así que, el conocimiento biológico de esta área queda aún por descubrir. Esta zona remota protege una importante diversidad, así como poblaciones de aves amenazadas, recursos hídricos, además del territorio y cultura de las comunidades que la habitan. Desafortunadamente la totalidad de la cordillera se encuentra concesionada para exploraciones de proyectos mineros. Por tanto, se requiere la atención de las autoridades regionales y nacionales para aunar esfuerzos que aseguren su conservación y exploración biológica.
Abstract The cordillera del Kutukú is located in the southeastern Ecuador and is partially isolated from the Andes mountain range. We conducted five field expeditions to the region, where we directly obtained information regarding the richness of birds. In addition, we compile bird richness data from published records and Ecuadorian museum's collections in order to provide an updated list. A total of 501 bird species were registered, in an elevation range from 500 to 2.300 m a.s.l. We found 13 species with new latitudinal and/or longitudinal distribution extensions. Twenty-six species (5.2%) are in an elevated risk category nationally or globally. The region's limited roads, added to the Shuar ethnic group policies for entering to their territory has aided in the conservation of forests, especially those over 1800 m a.s.l. Thus, the biological knowledge of this area remains to be discovered. This remote area protects an important diversity, as well as threatened bird populations, water resources, territory and culture of the indigenous groups that inhabit it. However, unfortunately the entire mountain range is under concession for exploration of mining projects. Therefore, the attention of regional and national authorities is required to join efforts to ensure their conservation and biological exploration.
RESUMO
Megascops screech-owls are endemic to the New World and range from southern Canada to the southern cone of South America. The 22 currently recognized Megascops species occupy a wide range of habitats and elevations, from desert to humid montane forest, and from sea level to the Andean tree line. Species and subspecies diagnoses of Megascops are notoriously difficult due to subtle plumage differences among taxa with frequent plumage polymorphism. Using three mitochondrial and three nuclear genes we estimated a phylogeny for all but one Megascops species. Phylogenies were estimated with Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference, and a Bayesian chronogram was reconstructed to assess the spatio-temporal context of Megascops diversification. Megascops was paraphyletic in the recovered tree topologies if the Puerto Rican endemic M. nudipes is included in the genus. However, the remaining taxa are monophyletic and form three major clades: (1) M. choliba, M. koepckeae, M. albogularis, M. clarkii, and M. trichopsis; (2) M. petersoni, M. marshalli, M. hoyi, M. ingens, and M. colombianus; and (3) M. asio, M. kennicottii, M. cooperi, M. barbarus, M. sanctaecatarinae, M. roboratus, M. watsonii, M. atricapilla, M. guatemalae, and M. vermiculatus. Megascops watsonii is paraphyletic with some individuals more closely related to M. atricapilla than to other members in that polytypic species. Also, allopatric populations of some other Megascops species were highly divergent, with levels of genetic differentiation greater than between some recognized species-pairs. Diversification within the genus is hypothesized to have taken place during the last 8 million years, with a likely origin in Central America. The genus later expanded over much of the Americas and then diversified via multiple dispersal events from the Andes into the Neotropical lowlands.