
- The team who discovered the new species consists of ornithologists from different countries.
- Researchers named the three new species Jalca tapaculo (Scytalopus frankeae), Ampay tapaculo (Scytalopus whitneyi), and white-winged tapaculo (Scytalopus krabbei).
- The new species will be added to the bird genus Scytalopus.
- The new species was discovered in the Peruvian Andes.
- Scytalopus are known as the songbirds or perching birds which belongs to the family Rhinocryptidae.
- The genus typically inhabits the mountains of Central America and the Atlantic Forest. Their variety is greatest in the Andean Mountains.
- The new species prefer shrubby alpine habitat and the understory forest layer where plants seldom grow to 12 feet. They hide in thick vegetation and are not good in flying.
- They resist to migrate in another habitat which makes them prone to population isolation.
- All the three species are endemic in Peru.
- Researchers discovered the new species by utilizing an integrated framework using a combination of vocal information, DNA sequences, and appearance, collected from their own fieldwork over the past 40 years and supplemented with community-shared birdsong data and museum samples.
Source:
https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/137/2/ukaa003/5743506
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/three-tapaculos-peru-08497.html
http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/whlayers.html