History of Research

“we have far to go before we learn where all of these [austral migrants] spend the remaining portions of the year or by what routes they reach their objectives,”

- John Zimmer in 1938

That the above statement continues to ring true is telling of the state of our knowledge on austral migration.Migration of some form had been known to occur in temperate South America since early in the 19th century when de Azara (1802-1805) observed changes in the abundance and composition of the avifauna of Paraguay and northeastern Argentina. However, few in-depth studies had been conducted on austral migrants until late in the 20th century.

Work by Dabbene (1910) and Wetmore (1926), as well as Belton (1985) and Willis (1988) advanced knowledge of this migratory system early in the last century. Zimmer (1938) gave an overview of the movements of several species throughout the year over the continent. McNeil (1982) first reported on austral migrant winter site fidelity (of Small-billed Elaenia, Elaenia parvirostris). Robinson et al. (1988) studied winter habitat use of austral migrants in southeastern Peru and Marantz and Remsen (1991) reported on the breeding and wintering range distributions of the Slaty Elaenia (Elaenia strepera).

The compilation and analysis of available data, mainly from museum records, led to the current realization of the pervasiveness of austral migration.   The most in-depth work to date is Chesser’s (1994, 1997, 1998) study of the taxonomy, habitat use, and geographic distributions of austral migrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae), including the first comprehensive list of austral migrant species (1994). Stotz et al. (1996) reviewed austral migrant habitat use, distribution and conservation status and Parker et al. (1996) provided a list of austral migrants along with their conservation and research needs. Hayes et al. (1994) outlined austral migrant occurrence and timing by species in Paraguay. Joseph (1996) studied winter distributions of migrants, later calling attention to the spectrum of New World migratory patterns (Joseph 1997). Chesser and Levey (1998) hypothesized evolutionary origins of austral migrants. More recently, Jahn et al. (2002a and 2002b) documented basic patterns of migration such as species abundances, habitat associations and timing of migration at a site in the Bolivian Chaco.  

Literature Cited

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