Phylogenetic relationships, song and distribution of the endangered Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps

The Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps is one of the world's rarest and least known birds. We summarize the known records since it was first described in 1905 from Shaanxi Province, central China. All subsequent Chinese records are from seven adjacent localities in nearby Sichuan Province....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ibis (London, England) England), 2017-01, Vol.159 (1), p.204-216
Main Authors: Zhao, Min, Alström, Per, Hu, Ruocheng, Zhao, Chao, Hao, Yan, Lei, Fumin, Qu, Yanhua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal communication
Biogeography
Biological Systematics
Biologisk systematik
Ecology
Ekologi
Endangered & extinct species
Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionsbiologi
Habitats
Luscinia ruficeps
MAXENT
Muscicapidae
Ornithology
Phylogenetics
phylogeny
principal component analysis
taxonomy
vocalizations
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Summary:The Rufous‐headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps is one of the world's rarest and least known birds. We summarize the known records since it was first described in 1905 from Shaanxi Province, central China. All subsequent Chinese records are from seven adjacent localities in nearby Sichuan Province. We studied its phylogenetic position for the first time using mitochondrial and nuclear markers for all species of Larvivora and a broad selection of other species in the family Muscicapidae. Our results confirmed that L. ruficeps is appropriately placed in the genus Larvivora, and suggested that it is sister to the Rufous‐tailed Robin Larvivora sibilans, with these two forming a sister clade to a clade comprising both the Japanese Robin Larvivora akahige and Ryukyu Robin Larvivora komadori. Siberian Blue Robin Larvivora cyane and Indian Blue Robin Larvivora brunnea form the sister clade to the other Larvivora species. In contrast, song analyses indicated that the song of L. ruficeps is most similar to that of L. komadori, whereas the song of L. sibilans is relatively more similar to that of L. akahige, and songs of L. cyane and L. brunnea closely resemble each other. We used ecological niche modelling to estimate the suitable habitats of L. ruficeps based on the records from breeding grounds, suggesting that north and central Sichuan, south Gansu, south Shaanxi and south‐east Tibet are likely to contain the most suitable habitats for this species.
ISSN:0019-1019
1474-919X
1474-919X
DOI:10.1111/ibi.12426