The Chocó vireo (''Vireo masteri'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Vireonidae The vireos make up a family (biology), family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. The family contains 62 species and is d ...

that was discovered by

Paul Salaman Paul George William Salaman (born 27 January 1971) is an ornithologist and conservation movement, conservationist based the Rainforest Trust, overseeing biodiversity conservation across Latin America. Life In 1971, Salaman was born in Australia, ...

in 1991 and described in 1996. It is found in western

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and has recently been found in north-west

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

Discovery

The Chocó vireo was first observed on August 25, 1991, by

in western Nariño located in southwest Colombia. The site, located at an altitude of 1,500 meters (five thousand feet), was in a narrow strip of intact, very wet forest along the Rio Nambi, in the Chocó region which is famed for its high biological diversity. In early June, 1992, ornithologist Gary Stiles observed and collected this species while working in Alto de Pisones in Risaralda department. The bird was small, a little more than four inches, lightweight at 11.4 grams, and greenish in color with a broad, wide yellowish wing bar. It had a distinctive facial pattern with a long white stripe above its eye. Salaman decided to take the novel approach of auctioning off the naming rights to the vireo's scientific name in order to raise money for conservation of the bird's habitat. Bernard Master, the first American birder to have seen a representative of every bird family in the world, won the auction with a bid of US$75,000 and named it ''Vireo masteri''. This donation was used to create the Pangan ProAves Reserve in Colombia.

References

Chocó vireo The Chocó vireo (''Vireo masteri'') is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae that was discovered by Paul Salaman in 1991 and described in 1996. It is found in western Colombia and has recently been found in north-west Ecuador. Its natural h ...

Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of El Chocó

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fauna of the northwestern Andean montane forests {{Vireonidae-stub