Two hundred and eighty eight bird species were registered in Santa Rita Farm, east of Paraná State in Brazil (28º18'S,49º48'W), from February 1990 to January 1991. Eighty four species were registered in all 12 months and eighty three were registered once during this period. October was the richest in number of species (220) and July was the poorest (137). The natural landscape of the Santa Rita farm is composed of open field with several patches of araucaria forest (from 10 to 40 ha) and some small areas of marshland. Two hundred and eight species occurred only in one of these habitats: 163 in the forest, 35 in the open field and 10 in the marshland. The others often occurred in both forest and open field; there is a gradient of occurrence between them. Columba speciosa Gmelin, 1789; C. maculosa Temminck, 1813; Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Sporophila melanogaster (Pelzeln, 1870) were new field registers in Parana State. Because of its great number of bird species (some endangered species) and its landscape, composed of well preserved habitats, Santa Rita farm is shown as a strategic area for conservation.
Birds; richness; distribution; Paraná; Brazil