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Breeding biology of the American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus on a key site for conservation in southern Brazil

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Abstract

The American Oystercatcher, Haematopus palliatus, is a widespread shorebird in both North and South America. Despite its large distribution along the Brazilian coast, there is a paucity of breeding information about the species across this vast region. Herein, we monitored the breeding biology of the species during three consecutive breeding seasons on three sandy beaches in southern Brazil. The nesting season extended from July to January with a mode clutch size of two eggs (mean ± SD = 1.9 ± 0.6, n = 63). The majority of the nests recorded were found in the sandy dunes habitat adjacent to the beachfront, with a low cover of herbaceous native vegetation, reinforcing the importance of this habitat for the conservation of the species.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to all colleagues and students from Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul (GEMARS), and Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio – Refúgio de Vida Silvestre da Ilha dos Lobos) that helped in the field expeditions during the three years of the study. We would also like to thank the staff of the Parque Estadual de Itapeva and Refúgio de Vida Silvestre da Ilha dos Lobos for support during the field work; Natalia Berchieri for preparing the map of the study area; this study was performed under permits from the federal agency SISBIO and Secretaria do Meio Ambiente e Infraestrutura do Rio Grande do Sul (SEMA-RS).

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Funding

The study was supported by the Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and Fundação Grupo Boticário de Proteção à Natureza. This is a contribution of the research group “Observa Litoral” (UERGS/CNPq).

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Author notes

  1. Bruno de Andrade Linhares

    Present address: Laboratório de Aves Aquáticas e Tartarugas Marinhas (LAATM), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG), Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Biodiversidade e Conservação (LABeC), Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS), Osório, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Bruno de Andrade Linhares, Juçara Bordin & Paulo Henrique Ott

  2. Centro de Estudos Costeiros, Limnológicos e Marinhos (CECLIMAR), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Bruno de Andrade Linhares & Guilherme Tavares Nunes

  3. Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul (GEMARS), Torres, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Paulo Henrique Ott

Authors
  1. Bruno de Andrade Linhares
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  2. Juçara Bordin
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  3. Guilherme Tavares Nunes
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  4. Paulo Henrique Ott
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Contributions

B.A.L., P.H.O., and G.T.N. designed the study. B.A.L. and P.H.O. performed most of the fieldwork and analyzed the data. J.B. performed the analysis of plant communities around nests. B.A.L. wrote the original draft and all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruno de Andrade Linhares.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

The study was performed under the permits from Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (SISBIO 64234-1), Secretaria do Meio Ambiente e Infraestrutura do Rio Grande do Sul (SEMA-RS; DUC 685), and approval of the Animal Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

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All the authors consent to participate in this study.

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All the authors consent to publish this study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This article was updated to correct the tagging of Bruno de Andrade Linhare’s name.

Communicated by Eduardo Santos

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Linhares, B.d.A., Bordin, J., Nunes, G.T. et al. Breeding biology of the American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus on a key site for conservation in southern Brazil. Ornithol. Res. 29, 16–21 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-021-00042-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-021-00042-5

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