Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species is listed as Endangered because it has a very small population, which is suspected to be in decline owing to continued forest loss and degradation, especially in its lowland non-breeding range.
Population justification
This species's breeding population in Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Costa Rica has been estimated at 190-330 mature individuals (Sánchez et al. 2009). In 2007, the estimate for the breeding population in the IBAs of Panama was given as 1,050-4,245 mature individuals, which is regarded by some as an overestimate (J. Criado et al. in litt. 2007), and is limited by a lack of sufficient data from the core of its likely range in Panama, La Amistad International Park (G. Angehr in litt. 2011). In total, the IBAs in Costa Rica and Panama cover approximately 65% of the species's range. Extrapolating to the global range, the population is estimated at c. 1,900-7,100 mature individuals. This number however requires confirmation and updating due to the uncertainty surrounding the national estimate of Panama and the continuing decline in the population.
Trend justification
The population is undergoing a moderate decline (Partners in Flight 2019). The main driver of the decline is thought to be the loss and degradation of its habitat, particularly in the non-breeding range (Elizondo Sancho and Molina Mora 2020; Global Forest Watch 2021). Over the past three generations (19.2 years), tree cover within the non-breeding range has been lost at a rate of 8% (Global Forest Watch 2021). In recent years, forest loss has been accelerating: projecting the rate of forest loss since 2015 forward over the next three generations, it may amount to 12.5% over this period.
In view of the species's high dependence on primary forest, it is likely that population declines are additionally compounded by habitat degradation and faster than tree cover loss alone. The rate of population decline is therefore here placed in the band 10-19% over three generations.
Cephalopterus glabricollis breeds locally on the Caribbean slope of the Cordilleras de Guanacaste, Tilarán and Talamanca in Costa Rica, and contiguous mountains in Panama, east to the Fortuna area, Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí (Collar et al. 1992). In the non-breeding season, it descends to the foothills and lowlands of the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica (Múnera-Roldán et al. 2007), and in Panama it occurs east to Veraguas and Coclé (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989; Angehr and Jordán 1998; Angehr 2003). Records from the Dota mountains, Costa Rica (Slud 1964) and from the Cordillera de Tolé (which can probably be identified as the Serranía de Tabasara; G. Angehr in litt. 2020), Panama (Wege 1993) likely correspond to the Caribbean side of those mountains or to the continental divide. It is now uncommon to rare and local throughout its range (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989; Stiles and Skutch 1989).
It breeds in mature subtropical forest at elevations of 800-2,100 m, and spends the non-breeding season in lowland forest (Fogden and Fogden 1997; Chaves-Campos et al. 2003; Garrigues and Dean 2007; Angehr and Dean 2010), males generally at 100-500 m, and females chiefly below 200 m (Stiles and Skutch 1989). During the breeding season (March-June in Costa Rica [Garrigues and Dean 2007]; April-September in Panama [Angehr and Dean 2010]), males defend display arenas at 'exploded leks' (Crenshaw 2002). A study in Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve found that birds only occupied 20-30% of apparently suitable habitat (Fogden and Fogden 1997). These birds left the breeding areas in late July or August, and returned in March (Fogden and Fogden 1997; Chaves-Campos et al. 2003). The diet is largely frugivorous, but can also include anoles, frogs and large insects (Stiles and Skutch 1989; Crenshaw 2002; Chaves-Campos 2005). Altitudinal movements of radio-tagged birds in Costa Rica apparently coincided with peaks of fruit abundance (Chaves-Campos et al. 2003).
Lowland non-breeding habitat has been greatly reduced and is severely threatened, especially in the north of Costa Rica where 35% of the remaining forest was removed in 1986-1992 (Powell et al. 1995). Primary causes are conversion to banana and, more recently, to pineapple plantations, expansion of cattle-ranches and logging. Habitat corridors linking the species's breeding and non-breeding areas have thus been lost, and remaining forest fragments in the lowlands are being degraded through logging (Unión de Ornitólogos de Costa Rica in litt. 2011). In Panama, remaining lowland and foothill forests on the Caribbean slope are threatened by clearance for agriculture, even in legally protected areas such as the San San Pond Sak Wetlands Ramsar Site (Angehr and Jordán 1998; Angehr 2003). Deforestation may have accelerated within the species's range, owing to the construction of a highway between Punta Peña near Chiriquí Grande and Almirante, and increased subsistence agriculture and cattle-raising within the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca (G. Angehr in litt. 2007). Since c. 2001, severe deforestation has been taking place within perhaps half of the species’s range in Panama (G. Angehr in litt. 2011). This has been particularly severe along the cordillera within the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle, in both breeding areas in the highlands and non-breeding areas in the foothills and lowlands, and deforestation has now reached the continental divide in some areas. Forest clearance may even be affecting potential non-breeding areas in La Amistad National Park in Panama (G. Angehr in litt. 2011). The elevation limits of this species's breeding range imply that it may be negatively affected by projected climate change.
Conservation Actions Underway
Breeding by this species has been recorded inside several protected areas, including Reserva Albeto Manuel Brenes Mesen, Reserva Privada Bosque Eterno de los Niños, Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, and it also presumably breeds in Braulio Carrillo and La Amistad National Parks, Fortuna Forest Reserve and Palo Seco Protection Forest (Stiles and Levey 1994; Fogden and Fogden 1997; Angehr and Jordán 1998; Angehr 2003; Chaves-Campos et al. 2003; J. Chaves-Campos in litt. 2007; G. Angehr in litt. 2007; Unión de Ornitólogos de Costa Rica in litt. 2011). In the non-breeding season, it has been recorded in the San San Pond Sak Wetlands Ramsar Site, at La Selva Biological Station and at Santa Fe and Omar Torrijos National Parks (Stiles and Levey 1994; Angehr and Jordán 1998; Angehr 2003). A new protected area has been declared in the lowlands (Maquenque National Park, on the border with Nicaragua), but it is separated from the breeding range by large areas of deforested habitat. However, there is an on-going initiative to create a biological corridor between Maquenque and La Selva biological station which would allow the birds to utilise this protected habitat (J. Chaves-Campos in litt. 2007).
36-41 cm. Large, ornate, black cotinga. Male glossy black. Large patch of (usually hanging) bright red bare skin from lower throat to upper chest, which is inflated during displays. Long and curled forward crown feathers (hence its vernacular name). Female smaller, duller and crown feathers reduced to frontal tuft. Voice Displaying males deliver low and far-carrying hooom hoots, accompanied by other staccato notes. Calls include grunts and coughs. Hints Best found on fruiting trees or by locating display arenas through calls.
Text account compilers
Hermes, C.
Contributors
Angehr, G., Arévalo, E., Chaves-Campos, J., Criado, J., Isherwood, I., Mahood, S., Pople, R., Sharpe, C.J., Stuart, T. & Taylor, J.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Bare-necked Umbrellabird Cephalopterus glabricollis. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bare-necked-umbrellabird-cephalopterus-glabricollis on 23/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/12/2024.