This Secondary Area is defined by the highly localized and little-known breeding range of Black-and-tawny Seedeater Sporophila nigrorufa (classified as Endangered). The seedeater's habits are poorly understood, as it has been found during the breeding season only in a few localities in eastern Santa Cruz department of eastern Bolivia where it is normally the rarest seedeater present (Collar et al. 1992, Wege and Long 1995, Pearce-Higgins 1996). There are also a couple of records of it further east from the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso states of western Brazil, one of which was of a male associating with a non-breeding flock of seedeaters. The species is most regularly seen (and proved to breed) at three sites of seasonally inundated cerrado grassland at the base of the Serranía de Huanchaca in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (9,140 km²) (S. Davis in litt. 1995). The cerrado grasslands form a mosaic structure with areas of dry and semi-humid forest which show affinities with the chaco region and the main cerrado zone of central Brazil. Agricultural expansion, burning and grazing will pose major threats to this part of eastern Bolivia within the next 10 years (Dinerstein et al. 1995).

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: East Bolivian cerrado. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/327 on 23/11/2024.