Continued bird surveys in southeastern coastal Brazilian Atlantic forests and the importance of conserving elevational gradients

Although the Atlantic forest is the best-studied Brazilian phytogeographic domain, few coastal municipalities of the state of Sao Paulo can count on published and critically revised bird species list, which are important initial steps to organize conservation inniciatives. Here we present historical records from Bertioga, a northern coastline municipality of the state of Sao Paulo, as well as recent records obtained in surveys during the past years within the municipality. Surveying methods, carried out between 2008-2011, included point counts, 10-species lists, transect counts and mist nets. This compendium resulted in 330 documented species, 90 of which still await documentation. Of these 420 bird species, 85 (20.4) are Atlantic forest endemic species and as many as eight, six and 23 are threatened at the global, national and state levels, respectively. Seventeen species are reported from Bertioga for the first time. Some records based exclusively on sightings must be carefully considered, whereas the species richness reflects the diversity of the habitats we visited, which varied from lowland and montane forests, to slopes and fluvial and tidal-influenced environments. We highlight that every habitat of the region should be continuously inventoried and that the absence of legal protection of lowland forests (which are not considered under the elevational threshold of the Serra do Mar State Park) must be reevaluated, as they harbor a greater number of endemic and threatened species than do other elevational bands.