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| [top] Cisticola bakerorum Kilombero Cisticola; [bottom] Cisticola anderseni White-tailed Cisticola. New species of cisticola warblers from the Kilombero floodplain of Tanzania. For both species, the bird in the front is painted after the type specimen, whereas the bird behind is based on photos of birds in more worn plumages. Fjeldså, Dinesen, Davies, Irestedt, ... et Bowie, 2021 DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12971 Watercolour painting by Jon Fjeldså. |
Abstract
The presence of two undescribed cisticola warblers in the marshes of the Kilombero floodplain in central Tanzania has been known since the 1980s and these putative new species have been illustrated in field guides on African birds, although with no formal name. Here we name both species, based on two museum specimens collected in 1961 and recently detected in a museum collection. We use these specimens to provide formal descriptions of each form and, using DNA sequence data extracted from these specimens, we place them in a broad phylogenetic framework for the genus Cisticola. The phylogenetic placement indicates that one of the new species is nested within a group of plain-backed duetting cisticolas and the other within the streak-backed marsh cisticolas. We use our own and public recordings to characterize the vocal repertoire of each of these new species and compare song characteristics with other members of their respective clades. Dating of nodes in the molecular phylogeny suggests that both cisticolas endemic to the Kilombero became isolated and diverged from their sister-species between 2.5 and 3.5 million years ago, long after the formation of the Eastern Arc Mountains and the Malawi Rift. We propose that both species should be classified as globally endangered, owing to immense anthropogenic pressures on the floodplain, as documented in several publications and by a recent Ramsar Advisory Mission.
Keywords: Africa, Cisticolidae, conservation, habitat selection, new species, Ramsar, wetlands
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| New species of cisticola warblers from the Kilombero floodplain of Tanzania. At the top, Cisticola bakerorum Kilombero Cisticola (Kidenenda wa Kilombero); at the bottom Cisticola anderseni White-tailed Cisticola (Kidenenda Mkia-mweupe). For both species, the bird in the front is painted after the type specimen, whereas the bird behind is based on photos of birds in more worn plumages. Watercolour painting by Jon Fjeldså. |
Based on the combined evidence from genetics, morphology and bioacoustics, we conclude that these two cisticolas of the Kilombero Floodplain represent independent species, which we formally describe and name below:
Cisticola bakerorum, species nova
(a.k.a. Kilombero Cisticola in English;
Kidenenda wa Kilombero in Kiswahili)
Etymology: We named this species after Neil Baker and the late Liz Baker, in recognition of their long-term efforts to document and conserve Tanzania’s birdlife, which includes the exploration of the Kilombero floodplain (e.g. Baker & Baker 1990, 2002).
Cisticola anderseni, species nova
(a.k.a. White-tailed Cisticola in English;
Kidenenda Mkia-mweupe in Kiswahili)
Etymology: We named this species after the late Thorkild Andersen, in recognition of his efforts to document Tanzania’s birdlife, including his collection in 1961 of the two specimens that serve as holotypes in this publication. His 11 741 avian specimens from Tanzania, collected over 20 years, are today deposited in six European natural history museums.
Jon Fjeldså, Lars Dinesen, Owen R. Davies, Martin Irestedt, Niels K. Krabbe, Louis A. Hansen and Rauri C. K. Bowie. 2021. Description of Two New Cisticola Species Endemic to the Marshes of the Kilombero Floodplain of southwestern Tanzania. Ibis. DOI: 10.1111/ibi.12971
