Leptodon forbesi (Swann, 1922)

Pereira, Glauco Alves, Dantas, Sidnei de Melo, Silveira, Luís Fábio, Roda, Sônia Aline, Albano, Ciro, Sonntag, Frederico Acaz, Leal, Sergio, Periquito, Mauricio Cabral, Malacco, Gustavo Bernardino & Lees, Alexander Charles, 2014, Status of the globally threatened forest birds of northeast Brazil, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 54 (14), pp. 177-194 : 185

Leptodon forbesi (Swann, 1922) ,

White-collared Kite (IUCN: CR)

Considered one of the world’s most threatened raptors, this species was recently “rediscovered” (Pereira et al., 2006; Dénes et al., 2011), when recorded from 12 localities in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco (Seipke et al., 2011). This species was considered a PCE endemic, but there is now a single recent record south of the São Francisco river in Sergipe outside of the PCE which may be a vagrant individual – perhaps unsurprising as a river is unlikely to form a major barrier for a large soaring forest raptor. We recorded this species from another 16 sites in Pernambuco, Alagoas and Paraíba states ( Table 2). This series of new records (including the first for the state of Paraíba) suggests that this species is more widespread in the PCE than formerly thought. The persistence of some individuals in small and degraded forest fragments (and likely an ability to move between different forest patches) coupled with an apparent absence of hunting pressure, suggest a degree of resilience to land-use change in the region, although quantitative studies should be undertaken to assess this assumption. Nevertheless, we suggest that this species also ought to be the target of a captive breeding program given the relative ease at which raptors can be maintained and bred in captivity .