Xingu Scythebill Campylorhamphus multostriatus Scientific name definitions

The Xingu Scythebill is a recently split member of the Curve-billed Scythebill (Campylorhamphus procurvoides) species complex; it is confined to the Xingu-Tocantins interfluvium in eastern Amazonian Brazil, mainly in the state of Pará but extending narrowly into adjacent northern Mato Grosso. Prior to the split, the name multostriatus was also applied to populations of Curve-billed Scythebill west of the Xingu River as far as the next major south-bank tributary of the Amazon, the Tapajós, but the comparatively recent discovery of a pronounced vocal break across the Xingu barrier spurred genetic research that revealed the two populations either side of it are not each other’s closest relatives. As a result, a new taxon was described for populations formerly assigned to Campylorhamphus procurvoides sensu lato in the Tapajós-Xingu interfluve, and these latter are now treated here as a subspecies of the Tapajos Scythebill (Campylorhamphus probatus).

This species’ distribution lies entirely within the so-called Arc of Deforestation, which means that its range must have been negatively impacted due to forest loss and degradation, with the result that is currently assessed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Like other closely related species, Xingu Scythebill inhabits humid evergreen forest, principally on terra firme, only occasionally entering floodplain-forest; it is closely associated with Guadua bamboo thickets or forests rich in vine tangles.

Despite having been first described to science in the early years of the 20th century, our knowledge of the natural history and ecology of this scythebill is still almost non-existent. Its discoverer was the German-born Maria Emilie Snethlage (1868–1929), who became a director of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, in Belém, and is still acknowledged as one of the “greats” of Brazilian (especially Amazonian) field and museum ornithology. She also seems to have been the first woman to formally describe new bird species; a veritable pioneer!