The support provided by the Environmental Impact Assessment for the construction of the Zona da Mata Regional Airport allowed the conduction of a qualitative sampling of the bird community at Goianá and Rio Novo municipalities, in the "Zona da Mata" region, southeastern Minas Gerais, Brazil. Some records for neighboring areas at Juiz de Fora and Coronel Pacheco municipalities are also given. The region is located in the Semidecidual Lowland Atlantic Forest domain but the current landscape is a mosaic of artificial pasturelands, secondary forest fragments, small orchards around farms' headquarters, small ponds for fish farming, and marshes at the Rio Novo floodplain. We recorded 185 bird species with the forest fragments being the richest habitat. Information on habitat and method of record and documentation of the birds are also given. Additionally, information on breeding status is given for some species. The Rio Novo floodplains are an important habitat for many species that are not very common in the rest of the Zona da Mata region. The local extinction of two species previously recorded in the area in the mid-1800s and the current presence of some poorly known and globally threatened species is highlighted. The importance of EIAs to gather relevant biological information is also discussed.
Birds; Brazil; extinction; forest fragmentation; Atlantic Forest; ornithology; Neotropical Region
