In 1995 biologists from the Capão do Embuia Natural History Museum in Curitiba (Paraná) identified a new type of bird on the southern coast of Paraná in a run-down area very close to Brazil’s most eminent research centres.
The Stymphalornis acutirostris or bicudinho-do-brejo, as it is called, is a very small creeping bird that was found hidden in the marshlands of the region. Although it belongs to the Formicaridae family, or banded ant-eater, the ornithologists Bianca Reinert and Marcos Bornscheim immediately realized that it was different from species already described on account of its unusually long beak and its lead grey plumage.
Although only recently discovered, the irony is that this little bird is already threatened with extinction. To give some idea of the scale of the risk, the vegetation in the area where it was spotted for the first time has been completely cut down and the marsh drained.