Magdalena Tinamou - Status and Conservation

Status and Conservation

The Magdalena Tinamou is probably threatened from hunting and deforestation. The habitat in which it is found has been heavily modified for agriculture. Large areas of the Magdalena River Valley had been converted to pasture or cultivated as early as the mid-18th century, and most of the remaining wet forest was cleared during a government-sponsored colonisation and infrastructure development programme in the 1960s and 1970s. Flat alluvial portions of the valley are now used for intensive rice and cotton production, while undulating terrain has been converted to pastureland. This left only approximately 1-2% of old secondary and primary forest. However, recent research collected information by local inhabitants suggesting that this bird still survives; tinamous are notoriously cryptic and not easily found. A recording was made near the type locality by Colombian ornithologist Oswaldo Cortés in late 2008. In addition to confirming the continued existence of the Magdalena Tinamou, it is hoped the recording (the first of the Magdalena Tinamou) can be used to better establish its taxonomic status (species or subspecies) through comparisons with recordings of other Red-legged Tinamou subspecies. The absence of data beyond plumage (e.g. vocal analysis) was the main arguments presented by the SACC in 2006 for not accepting the Magdalena Tinamou as a separate species.

No conservation effort is currently underway. However, it was proposed to conduct ornithological surveys and interviews in San Calixto/Convención and the foothills on the western slope of the Cordillera Oriental above Pailitas, the eastern foothills of Serranía de San Lucas, and between Pailitas and La Jagua de Ibirico. It was also proposed to locate surviving forest patches using aerial photographs and assess the species's taxonomic position.

As mentioned above, the Magdalena Tinamou has been removed from the IUCN Red List, where now considered a subspecies of the widespread Red-legged Tinamou. The Magdalena Tinamou was classified as Critically Endangered: D in the 2006 Red List, uplisted from Endangered in 1994.