Territoriality and Survivorship of the Sierra Madre Sparrow in La Cima, México

Authors: Ita, Adán; Silva, Héctor

Source: Biodiversity and Conservation, Volume 16, Number 4, April 2007 , pp. 1055-1061(7)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

We studied the life-history of the Sierra Madre sparrow (Xenospiza baileyi) in a subalpine grassland-agriculture mosaic south of Mexico City. From March to early September 1999 we captured and color-banded 53 adults with mist-nets and mapped the breeding territories of 21 males. We again mapped territories in the same spot in April and May 2000. The number of breeding territories was found to be the same in the two consecutive years and interannual survivorship was found to be relatively high. Breeding territories were restricted to the bunchgrass-covered areas. We used the density of territories and the amount of remaining habitat to estimate a total population size of 5,380-6,150 adults for this species. Using this and other recent data, we recommend raising the Sierra Madre sparrow to the status of critically endangered using BirdLife International criteria.

Keywords: Mexico; Restricted range; Critically endangered; Sierra Madre sparrow; Survivorship; Territoriality; Xenospiza baileyi

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-9062-5

Affiliations: 1: Email: oliveras@laneta.apc.org

Publication date: 2007-04-01