Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla in Brazil: occurrence away from the coast and a new record for the central-west region

The Semipalmated Sandpiper, Calidris pusilla, is a Western Hemisphere migrant shorebird for which Brazil forms an internationally important contranuptial area. In Brazil, the species main contranuptial areas is along the Atlantic Ocean coast, in the north and northeast regions. In addition to these primary contranuptial areas, there are also records of vagrants widely distributed across Brazil. Here, we review the occurrence of vagrants of this species in Brazil, and document a new record of C. pusilla for the central-west region and a first occurrence for the state of Goiás. KeY-WorDS: geographical distribution, Nearctic migrant, shorebird, state of Goiás, vagrant. of Mato Grosso (Cintra 2011, Levatich & Padilha 2019) and two in the municipality of Corumbá, state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Serrano 2010, Tubelis & Tomas 2003). However, there is no evidence that these records have been correctly identified, as individuals appear not to have been collected and sent to a scientific collection, nor are images available to validate records. On 11, 12 and 13 November 2018, an adult specimen of C. pusilla was observed in an area denominated “Lago da Piscicultura Frutos D'Água” in the municipality of Goiânia, state of Goiás, Brazil (16o34'25''S; 49o18'48''W, 719 m a.s.l.). During three consecutive days, C. pusilla was sighted in the late afternoons, foraging most of the time along with a maximum of four White-rumped Sandpipers Calidris fuscicollis (Vieillot, 1819) and with two Solitary Sandpipers Tringa solitaria Wilson, 1813 (Fig. 1). Very similar to the congeneric C. mauri and C. minutilla, which were not present at the site, the C. pusilla individual was safely identified through high-quality photographic records. Compared to C. minutilla, its size was larger, with gray upper plumage and black legs, thick beak with absence of slight (Barnett et al. 2004, Lees et al. 2013). In contrast to C. mauri, the head was smaller and less frontal in shape, the beak had a thick tip and the center of the chest was not striated (Barnett et al. 2004, eBird 2019). Digital vouchers were uploaded to WikiAves (WA3179032). Semipalmated Sandpiper inland in Brazil Pereira & Oliveira 219 Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 27(3): 2019 Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 27(3): 2019 table 1. Review of the occurrence of vagrant Calidris pusilla in Brazil. Location: state, municipality, place description and geographical coordinates latitude (S), longitude (W). Verifiable evidences: P – photograph, S – preserved specimen, R – recovery of marked individual, V – visually observed; no specimen available. n = Number of individuals. Specimens: number of tumble and their respective collections (CLO:EBIRD – eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology; UNICAMP:FNJV – Fonoteca Neotropical “Jacques Vielliard”; WA – WikiAves). location Date Verifiable evidences n Specimens reference Amazonas, Manaus, little lake in Careiro 29 March 1987 V 1 Stotz et al. 1992 Amazonas, Iranduba, Marchantaria Island 16 February 1989 V 8 Stotz et al. 1992 Pará, Terra Santa, Mexiana Island (1o57'S; 56o21'W) 1 Hellmayr & Conover 1948 apud Serrano 2010 Tocantins, Itacajá, near the municipality of Recursolândia 31 October 2000 V, R 1 CEMAVE 2007 apud Serrano 2010 Maranhão, Timon, crown of the Paranaíba River 2 November 2017 V, P 2 WA2765260 Galvão 2017 Ceará, São Benedito, Ibiapaba (4o00'S; 41o00'W) 08 January 1929 1 Hellmayr & Conover 1948 apud Serrano 2010 Ceará, Sobral, Lagoa das Marrecas (3o41'15.8''S; 40o19'51.3''W) 13 October 2018 V 11 CLO:EBIRD:OBS666659024 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Pernambuco, Petrolina (9o24'18.1''S; 40o32'10.0''W) 15 February 2003 V 1 CLO:EBIRD:OBS72752146 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Pernambuco, Serra Talhada, Açude do Saco 08 December 1973 S 1 UNICAMP:FNJV:0000000656 Toledo 2019 Bahia, Juazeiro, Caatinga Forest east (9o30'52.4''S; 40o07'23.6''W) 15 February 2003 V 2 CLO:EBIRD:OBS471407770 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Bahia, Mata de São João, Sapiranga Reserve (12o34'04.6''S; 38o02'14.8''W) 25 January 2013 V 1 CLO:EBIRD:OBS499778311 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Bahia, Santa Rita de Cássia, Preto River (11o00'S; 44o32'W) 04 May 1910 1 Hellmayr & Conover 1948 apud Serrano 2010 Santa Catarina, Santa Rosa de Lima, Pousada Doce Encanto (28o02'00.2''S; 49o09'00.9''W) 18 November 2017 V 1 CLO:EBIRD:OBS550251697 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Mato Grosso, Poconé, Pantanal of Poconé between 1982 and 1986 Cintra 2011 Mato Grosso, Poconé, Pousada Curicaca (16o30'16.0''S; 56o40'30.7''W) 11 September 2013 V 1 CLO:EBIRD:OBS224967965 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Mato Grosso, Poconé, Porto Jofre (17o21'52.3''S; 56o46'30.4''W) 04 September 2017 V 1 CLO:EBIRD:OBS668324309 Levatich & Padilha 2019 Mato Grosso do Sul, Corumbá, Nhecolândia in Campinas Farm October 1988 and October 1989 V Serrano 2010 Mato Grosso do Sul, Corumbá, Nhumirim Farm (18o59'S; 56o39''W) between 1991 and 1992 V Tubelis & Tomas 2003 Semipalmated Sandpiper inland in Brazil Pereira & Oliveira 220 Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 27(3): 2019 We reviewed the records of vagrants of C. pusilla in Brazil and found five previous observations for central Brazil, but there are not enough evidences to confirm the correctness of the identification of these records (Table 1). Thus, here we document a new occurrence of C. pusilla for the central-west region and a first record for the state of Goiás. A bird of international conservation concern, C. pusilla is classified as “Near Threatened”, due to ongoing population declines (IUCN 2019) linked to several physiological, ecological and human-related challenges, such as: species needs to perform periodic scales for resting and foraging; good habitat conditions in both breeding and contranuptial areas; availability of food resources; competition in foraging environment; predation pressure; human disturbances (Skagen 2006, Burger et al. 2007, IUCN 2019).


Short-communication
The Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla (Linnaeus, 1766) is a migratory shorebird species that breeds in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Alaska and Canada (Andres et al. 2012, IUCN 2019. Every year, as the northern autumn approaches, Arctic populations fly from 3000 to 4000 km to South America (Hicklin & Gratto-Trevor 2010).
In Brazil, C. pusilla occurs during all months of the year, but with very few records during the boreal winter (eBird 2019, GBIF 2019, SNA 2019, WikiAves 2019). This species uses the Atlantic route, occurring from the coastal zone of the state of Amapá to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the main contranuptial areas with population concentrations of this bird are located along of the Reentrâncias Paraenses and Maranhenses and in the states of Amapá and Pernambuco (Rodrigues 2007, Carvalho & Rodrigues 2011, Rodrigues et al. 2015, SNA 2019, GBIF 2019. In the southeast and south regions, only a small population of this species is observed (Harrington et al. 1986, Resende et al. 1989, Barbieri et al. 2013, eBird 2019, GBIF 2019, WikiAves 2019.
In addition to the primary contranuptial areas mentioned above, there are also records of vagrants widely distributed inland in Brazil (Table 1). Based on the available information, five previous records of C. pusilla were found for the central-west region, of which three were obtained in the municipality of Poconé, state of Mato Grosso (Cintra 2011, Levatich & Padilha 2019 and two in the municipality of Corumbá, state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Serrano 2010, Tubelis & Tomas 2003. However, there is no evidence that these records have been correctly identified, as individuals appear not to have been collected and sent to a scientific collection, nor are images available to validate records. On 11, 12 and 13 November 2018, an adult specimen of C. pusilla was observed in an area denominated "Lago da Piscicultura Frutos D'Água" in the municipality of Goiânia, state of Goiás, Brazil (16 o 34'25''S; 49 o 18'48''W, 719 m a.s.l.). During three consecutive days, C. pusilla was sighted in the late afternoons, foraging most of the time along with a maximum of four White-rumped Sandpipers Calidris fuscicollis (Vieillot, 1819) and with two Solitary Sandpipers Tringa solitaria Wilson, 1813 ( Fig. 1). Very similar to the congeneric C. mauri and C. minutilla, which were not present at the site, the C. pusilla individual was safely identified through high-quality photographic records. Compared to C. minutilla, its size was larger, with gray upper plumage and black legs, thick beak with absence of slight (Barnett et al. 2004, Lees et al. 2013. In contrast to C. mauri, the head was smaller and less frontal in shape, the beak had a thick tip and the center of the chest was not striated (Barnett et al. 2004, eBird 2019. Digital vouchers were uploaded to WikiAves (WA3179032).  We reviewed the records of vagrants of C. pusilla in Brazil and found five previous observations for central Brazil, but there are not enough evidences to confirm the correctness of the identification of these records (Table 1). Thus, here we document a new occurrence of C. pusilla for the central-west region and a first record for the state of Goiás.
A bird of international conservation concern, C. pusilla is classified as "Near Threatened", due to ongoing population declines (IUCN 2019) linked to several physiological, ecological and human-related challenges, such as: species needs to perform periodic scales for resting and foraging; good habitat conditions in both breeding and contranuptial areas; availability of food resources; competition in foraging environment; predation pressure; human disturbances (Skagen 2006, Burger et al. 2007, IUCN 2019).

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We would like to thank Alexander C. Lees and Túlio Dornas for helping with the species identification. We also thank Jéssica Vieira Teixeira for her helpful suggestions on the manuscript. We thanks to the researchers who provided their data deposited in the "Sistema Nacional de Anilhamento de Aves Silvestres (SNA)".