Genetic structure offers insights into the evolution of migration and the taxonomy of the Barred Long‐tailed Cuckoo<i><scp>C</scp>ercococcyx montanus</i>species complex

Engel, Joshua I.; Byamana, Kizungu; Kahindo, Charles; Bates, John M.; Fjeldså, Jon

doi:10.1111/ibi.12145

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…We commend this judgement and, of course, concur with it unreservedly. A strong divergence in voice with little or no divergence in physical appearance is far more indicative of the likelihood of real reproductive incompatibility than a strong genetic divergence with 'no readily apparent differences… in vocalizations', as presented in the proposed split of the two subspecies that comprise Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo C. montanus (Engel et al 2014)-an arrangement not adopted to date by any of the main world lists of bird species (del Hoyo & Collar 2014, Christidis et al 2018, Clements et al 2018, Gill & Donsker 2018.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two undescribed species of bird from West Africa

Boesman¹,

Collar

2019

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club

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Taxonomically undifferentiated western and eastern populations of Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo Cercococcyx mechowi and Yellow-spotted Barbet Buccanodon duchaillui are known to have very different voices. The cuckoo has two song types, a melodious three-note whistle and a plaintive whinnying in West Africa west of the Bakossi Mountains in Cameroon, and a much less melodious, higher-pitched three-note whistle and a much faster whinnying in Central Africa east of the Bakossi Mountains. The barbet has an accelerating song of some 6-11 hoots west of the Dahomey Gap and a rapid rolling purr to the east. Even though in plumage and morphometrics there is no unambiguous diagnostic distinction between these two vocal groups, analysis of their vocalisations demonstrates a high degree of differentiation. We consider the western groups as species, naming the cuckoo for Françoise Dowsett-Lemaire and the barbet for Robert Dowsett. Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo Cercococcyx mechowi and Yellow-spotted Barbet Buccanodon duchaillui share much the same geographical range, extending through the Upper and Lower Guinea forest belt of West Africa, from Sierra Leone east discontinuously at the Dahomey Gap to Nigeria and thence Uganda (and for the barbet western Kenya), and south to northern Angola (del Hoyo & Collar 2014). They also share a curious characteristic, that their populations either side of a relatively narrow line (not the same line, however) have, quite recently, been found to possess markedly different songs. The revelation concerning the cuckoo appears first to have been made by Dowsett-Lemaire (1997), and in the case of the barbet by Borrow & Demey (2001). We cite the latter's information on both species in quotation marks in the following paragraph. Each population of Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo has two song-types. From Sierra Leone to western Cameroon, birds have (1a) a song of 'three rising notes, hu hee wheeu', and (1b) 'a less frequently uttered whinnying series of rather plaintive notes, first accelerating and then slowing and descending tiutiutiutiutittiui-tiu-tiu-tiu…, reminiscent of [a] Halcyon kingfisher'. From western Cameroon eastwards, birds have (2a) a faster song, 'with three similar, less melodious notes wheet-wheet-wheet' and (2b) 'a fast, descending wheewheewheewheewhee…, almost twice as fast as [the] equivalent in Upper Guinea'. For Yellow-spotted Barbet, the main call in the west of the range is 'a series of 7-10 accelerating oop notes similar to a song of Hairy-breasted Barbet' Tricholaema hirsuta, while in the east birds give 'a characteristic purring rrurrrrrr… (lasting 1-2 seconds), unique among [African] barbets, uttered by adult and juvenile'. These remarkable circumstances have apparently gone unstudied. Both species are treated as monotypic in all recent world lists (

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two undescribed species of bird from West Africa

Boesman¹,

Collar

2019

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club

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“…It is conceivable that individuals dispersed via streams, at least locally. Several studies have highlighted dispersal in the diversification of tropical birds and mammals across the Albertine Rift (Voelker et al 2010b, Engel et al 2014, Roy et al 2014, Demos et al 2015, and it seems implausible that all Albertine Rift montane swamp habitats were ever directly connected; hence, dispersal must have played a role. Our data suggest that divergence was initiated not more than 170 thousand years ago.…”

Section: Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We investigated genetic structure and diversity among most of the extant populations of B. graueri and compared our data with published work on other endemic Albertine Rift species, a region for which few published comparative avian data exist (e.g. Voelker et al 2010b, Engel et al 2014. We also compare our results with those of the endangered Mountain Gorilla Gorilla gorilla beringei and Grauer's Gorilla Gorilla gorilla graueri, which share a distribution similar to that of B. graueri.…”

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Population genetic structure of Grauer's Swamp Warbler Bradypterus graueri, an Albertine Rift endemic

Kahindo

Bates

Bowie

2017

Ibis

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The endangered warbler Bradypterus graueri is endemic to the Albertine Rift, where it is restricted to montane swamps above 1900 m across the region. We studied genetic structure among six populations sampled across the species' distribution in northern Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A total of 2117 base pairs of mitochondrial data were sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses and network reconstruction of B. graueri haplotypes recovered three clades with a defined geographical pattern: clade 1, Virunga Volcanoes and Kigezi Highlands; clade 2, Rugege Highlands; and clade 3, Kahuzi‐Biega Highlands; clades 2 and 3 are sisters to each other. Both landscape dynamics and historical climate are likely to have played a role in the diversification of this species. The divergence between clade 1 and clades 2 and 3 (168.5 ka, 95% HPD 108.5, 244.4) coincides with a prolonged period of aridity in tropical Africa between 130 and 270 ka. Similarly, the divergence between clades 2 and 3 (99.4 ka, 95% HPD 55.4, 153.8) corresponds with a period of aridity just prior to 94 ka. Populations sampled from the eastern arm of the central Albertine Rift (Kigezi and Rugege Highlands) show a coincident increase in effective population size after the Last Glacial Maximum at c. 15 ka, whereas those sampled from Kahuzi‐Biega on the western arm of the rift do not. Despite the perceived higher vagility of bird species relative to other vertebrates, the degree of phylogeographical structure among populations of B. graueri is similar to that reported for small mammals (Hylomyscus vulcanorum, Lophuromys woosnami, Sylvisorex vulcanorum) and a frog Hyperolius castaneus sampled across the central Albertine Rift. Collectively our results suggest that climate dynamics associated with late Pleistocene cycles had a significant influence on driving the population genetic structure and associated levels of genetic diversity in B. graueri and other small terrestrial vertebrates. Our results have implications for the conservation of B. graueri and other endemics to the Albertine Rift, particularly in the context of other phylogegeographical studies centred on this biodiversity hotspot.

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