The cone-billed tanager (''Conothraupis mesoleuca'') 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

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family (biology), family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12 ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It was described on the basis of a single male specimen collected in

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

, Brazil, in 1938. No other individuals were collected or seen and some feared the bird had become

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, while others speculated that it possibly only was an aberrant

black-and-white tanager The black-and-white tanager (''Conothraupis speculigera'') is a tanager found in the Tumbes region of southwestern Ecuador and northwestern Peru; it migrates eastwards as far as Acre (state), Acre. The only other member of its genus is the recen ...

(unlikely, as the black-and-white tanager only occurs far from the region where the cone-billed was collected). In 2003, it was rediscovered by D. Buzzetti in gallery woodland and

Cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

in the

Emas National Park The Emas National Park (, literally meaning " Rhea National Park") is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. Description The National Park is located between the states of Goi� ...

, only to be independently rediscovered at the same locality in 2004 by B. A. Carlos. The male resembles the male black-and-white tanager, but differs by its black flanks and its strikingly whitish-grey bill (this has faded in the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

, currently kept in

MNHN The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the ...

, where it appears dark dusky-horn). Also, the crissum (the area around the

cloaca A cloaca ( ), : cloacae ( or ), or vent, is the rear orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive (rectum), reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles, birds, cartilagin ...

) of the male is black and frequently has white spots. The

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

of the female is closer to that of the female ultramarine grosbeak than that of the female black-and-white tanager, but a longer, more detailed description is currently being prepared for publication.

References

* BirdLife International 2007
Data for Conothraupis mesoleuca
* Buzzetti, D., and B. A. Carlos (2005). A redescoberta do tiê-bicudo Conothraupis mesoleuca. (Berlioz, 1939). Atualidades Ornithológicas 127: Front, pp. 2 and 16–17. cone-billed tanager Birds of the Cerrado Birds of the Brazilian Amazon Birds of Southern Amazonia Endemic birds of Brazil cone-billed tanager cone-billed tanager Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Thraupidae-stub