The birds of the Pantanal

This chapter reviews recent developments in ornithological studies of the birds of the Pantanal. In recent years, publications from the Pantanal region increased considerably. Among those are several dissertations completed within the Pantanal Ecology Project (PEP) of the Federal University of Mato Grosso and Max-Planck-Institute, Working Group on Tropical Ecology, Germany. Bird inventories are now available from most parts of the Pantanal, though intensive and long-term sampling effort is required to obtain nearly complete species lists. However, for many rare or migratory species of the Pantanal there is still a lack of well-documented records and of informations concerning their status in the Pantanal. Studies on biology and ecology of Pantanal species are still limited, while most conservation-related publications concern two species: the Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) and the Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria). The Pantanal has higher avian species richness than adjacent landscapes, which is mainly due to diverse forest bird communities, not much inferior in species numbers to Amazonian forests. The Pantanal is under the double infl uence of pronounced climatic seasons and a monomodal floodpulse, both of which show irregular long-term oscillations. This causes dynamic responses of the bird communities, which are only partially understood. The best-known feature is the breeding of aquatic birds, which is triggered by certain stages of the floodpulse. A considerable part of the avifauna are migratory species, but the complex migration strategies of Pantanal birds are still poorly known. More long-term studies on the ecology and dynamics of local bird communities, as well as bird migration studies including satellite tracking, will be necessary to better understand the avifauna of the Pantanal