Sapayoa

Sapayoa
	Nusagandi, Panama
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Eurylaimoidea
Family:	Sapayoidae; Irestedt et al. 2006
Genus:	Sapayoa; Hartert, 1903
Species:	S. aenigma
Binomial name
	Sapayoa aenigma; Hartert, 1903

The sapayoa or broad-billed sapayoa (Sapayoa aenigma) is a suboscine passerine bird found Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama.^[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

As the sapayoa's specific epithet aenigma ("the enigma") implies, its relationships have long been elusive.

The sapayoa was formally described by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert in 1903 under the present binomial name Sapayoa aenigma.^[3] It has always been considered a monotypic genus, Sapayoa, and historically regarded as a New World suboscine; in particular, it was assigned to the manakin family (Pipridae). However, the species was listed as incertae sedis (position uncertain) in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, because

"preliminary DNA-DNA hybridization comparisons ... indicate that this species is either a relative of the Old World Eurylaimidae or a sister group of all other Tyrannida, as suggested by earlier biochemical studies .... In any event, it is not a close relative of manakins or any other recent tyrannoid."^[4]

More recent research suggests that it is not a New World suboscine at all, but an Old World suboscine. In 2004, it was shown that the sapayoa is an outlier to the New World suboscines.^[5] In an earlier analysis based on nDNA myoglobin intron 2 and GAPDH intron 11 sequence data, the authors found the sapayoa

"as a deep branch in the group of broadbills and pittas of the Old World tropics."^[6]

Accordingly, the sapayoa would be the last surviving New World species of a lineage that evolved in Australia-New Guinea when Gondwana was in the process of splitting apart. The sapayoa's ancestors are hypothesized to have reached South America via the Western Antarctica Peninsula.

Beginning in about 2010, major taxonomic systems moved the sapayoa into its own family Sapayoidae.^[7]^[8]^[2]^[9]^[10] However, they differ in its placement in a linear sequence of families. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) places it second among passerine families, between Acanthisittidae (the New Zealand wrens) and Philepittidae (the Asities).^[2] The Clements taxonomy places several other families between the New Zealand wrens and the sapayoa and follows it with the asities.^[9] BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World places it further down the linear sequence, between Eurylaimidae (typical broadbills) and Calyptomenidae (African and green broadbills).^[10]

All the systems agree that the sapayoa is monotypic.

Description

The sapayoa is 13.5 to 15 cm (5.3 to 5.9 in) long and weighs about 21 g (0.74 oz). Its head and upperparts are olive with a dusky tinge to the wings and tail. It throat and belly are a yellower olive. Its bill is wide and black with rictal bristles around it. Its iris is dull reddish brown and its legs are gray. Males have a yellow stripe on the crown.^[11]^[12]

Distribution and habitat

The sapayoa is found from the Panama Canal Zone south through western Colombia into extreme northwestern Ecuador. It inhabits humid forest from the understory to the mid-level, and often occurs in ravines and near watercourses. In elevation it ranges as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Colombia but only to 500 m (1,600 ft) in Ecuador.^[11]^[13]^[12]

Behavior

Movement

The sapayoa is assumed to be a year-round resident in its range.^[11]

Feeding

The sapayoa typically feeds by perching for long periods between sallies to catch insects on the wing or from foliage. It also feeds on small fruits. It often joins mixed-species feeding flocks.^[11]^[13]^[12]

Breeding

The sapayoa's breeding season includes at least March to September in Panama and February to April in Colombia. Its pear-shaped nest is made from long strips of bark and other fibers, some of which dangle beneath the structure, and has a side entrance near its bottom. It is suspended from a branch, often above a stream. Two nests each held two nestlings. Both parents fed the brood at one. At the other the female brooded them and an adult male and two immature males attended her and the brood.^[11]^[14]^[15]

Songs and calls

Listen to sapayoa on xeno-canto

Vocalization

The sapayoa's vocalizations are not well known.^[11] One is "a soft trill" and another is "a slightly louder 'chipp, ch-ch-ch' ".^[12]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the sapayoa as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.^[1] It is "[a]pparently rare to uncommon, and possibly rather local in distribution."^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b BirdLife International (2018). "Sapayoa aenigma". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22698786A130196553. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22698786A130196553.en. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P., eds. (January 2023). "NZ wrens, Sapayoa, asities, broadbills, pittas". IOC World Bird List. v 13.1. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
^ Hartert, Ernst (1903). "On a remarkable new oligomyodian genus and species from Ecuador". Novitates Zoologicae. 10: 117–118.
^ Sibley, Charles Gald & Monroe, Burt L. Jr. (1990). Distribution and taxonomy of the birds of the world: A Study in Molecular Evolution. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. ISBN 0-300-04969-2
^ Chesser, R. Terry (2004). Molecular systematics of New World suboscine birds. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 32(1): 11–24. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.11.015 PDF fulltext
^ Fjeldså, Jon; Zuccon, Dario; Irestedt, Martin; Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G.P. (2003). Sapayoa aenigma: a New World representative of 'Old World suboscines'. Proc. R. Soc. B 270(Supplement 2): 238–241. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0075 PDF fulltext^{[permanent dead link]} Electronic supplement^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Chesser, R. T., S. M. Billerman, K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, B. E. Hernández-Baños, R. A. Jiménez, A. W. Kratter, N. A. Mason, P. C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., D. F. Stotz, and K. Winker. 2022. Check-list of North American Birds (online). American Ornithological Society. https://checklist.americanornithology.org/taxa
^ Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023
^ ^a ^b Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022
^ ^a ^b HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Snow, D. (2020). Sapayoa (Sapayoa aenigma), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.sapayo1.01 retrieved April 26, 2023
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ridgely, Robert S.; Greenfield, Paul J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 563-564 plate 78. ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7.
^ ^a ^b McMullan, Miles; Donegan, Thomas M.; Quevedo, Alonso (2010). Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Bogotá: Fundación ProAves. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-9827615-0-2.
^ Christian, D.G. (2001). "Nests and nesting behaviour of some little known Panamanian birds" (PDF). Ornitologia Neotropical. 12: 327–336.
^ Dzielski, S.A.; Van Doren, B.M.; Hruska, J.P.; Hite, J.M. (2016). "Reproductive biology of the Sapayoa (Sapayoa aenigma), the "Old World suboscine" of the New World". The Auk: Ornithological Advances. 133 (3): 347–363. doi:10.1642/AUK-16-5.1.