Another lost bird has been found! A research team led by the University of Texas in El Paso obtained photos and sound recordings of the incredible <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://searchforlostbirds.org/birds/1667">Yellow-crested Helmetshrike</a> in the Itombwe mountains in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in late December 2023.The team was led by ornithologists Michael Harvey and Matt Brady from the University of Texas El Paso as part of a collaboration with the University of Texas El Paso’s Eli Greenbaum and Chifundera Kusamba, Robert Kizungu Byamana, Chance Bahati Muhigirwa, Mwenebatu M. Aristote and Wandege M. Muninga from the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles.You can see Harvey’s photos and sound recordings from the morning he came across the helmetshrikes on December 19 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ebird.org/checklist/S159124700">here</a> along with Brady’s observations and incredible photo from Christmas day 2023 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ebird.org/checklist/S158955258">here</a>.From what we have been able to find, these photos and sound recordings are the first documented records of the helmetshrike since a sound recording of the species was made in 2007, 16 years earlier, and the first-ever photos of the bird in the wild. There have been a handful of more recent sightings of Yellow-crested Helmetshrikes (such as this <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ebird.org/checklist/S122464376">one</a> in 2013 that may have included sound recordings) but records of the species have generally been few and far between in recent decades.The helmetshrike is the ninth Lost Bird that has been found since we launched the Lost Birds list in 2022, leaving 126 Lost Birds still to be rediscovered.The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the global hotspots for Lost Birds with 13 Lost Bird species occurring in the region in addition to the helmetshrike (check the others on the Lost Birds list <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://searchforlostbirds.org/birds">here</a>). Two of these Congolese Lost Birds are also from the Itombwe region, not far from where the helmetshrike was seen: the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://searchforlostbirds.org/birds/1633">Itombwe Owl</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://searchforlostbirds.org/birds/1603">Itombwe Nightjar</a>. Could one of these be the next Lost Bird to be rediscovered?Check out the press release from University of Texas El Paso to learn more about helmetshrike’s rediscovery: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2024/february/first-known-photos-of-lost-bird-captured-by-utep-scientists.html">https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2024/february/first-known-photos-of-lost-bird-captured-by-utep-scientists.html</a>And see the Birds of the World species account to see what else is known about the Yellow-crested Helmetshrike: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/yechel1/cur/introduction">https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/yechel1/cur/introduction</a>Found in just four mountain ranges in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Yellow-crested Helmetshrike is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List and is threatened by the loss of habitat in its forest home. You can learn more about its conservation status on the BirdLife International Species factsheet: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/yellow-crested-helmetshrike-prionops-alberti">https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/yellow-crested-helmetshrike-prionops-alberti</a>

First photos of the Yellow-crested Helmetshrike!

After its unexpected rediscovery in 2022, researchers with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://abcbirds.org/">American Bird Conservancy</a> (ABC), <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://unal.edu.co">Universidad Nacional de Colombia</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.selva.org.co/en/home/">SELVA</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://procat-conservation.org/">ProCAT Colombia</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.parrots.org/">World Parrot Trust</a> have released new findings about one of the rarest and most poorly known bird species in the world, the Santa Marta Sabrewing. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.18.581190v1">Recently posted</a> as a preprint in bioRxiv, the study offers a glimpse into previously undocumented feeding, singing, and courtship behaviors of this Critically Endangered hummingbird species.“Our findings show that this amazing hummingbird may be an example of microendemism, as it seems to be restricted to a limited area within the world’s most important continental center of endemism,” said Esteban Botero-Delgadillo, lead author of the study and Director of Conservation Science with SELVA: Research for Conservation in the Neotropics. “We are excited to have the opportunity to continue studying this bird because there are still huge knowledge gaps regarding its biology and distribution. Filling these gaps will help achieve our ultimate goal of finding long-lasting conservation solutions.”Located in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia, little has been known about the species as it was lost to science for 64 years before being photographed once in 2010, only to become lost again before its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://abcbirds.org/news/santa-marta-sabrewing-rediscovered-2022/">rediscovery in 2022</a> by Yurgen Vega, one of the authors of the new study. "The moment when I first found the Santa Marta Sabrewing was very emotional, I really couldn't believe it. The adrenaline, the thrill of that moment of rediscovery, it's hard to fully describe just how exciting it was," said Vega.Just seven months after Yurgen’s rediscovery, professors Carlos Esteban Lara and Andrés M. Cuervo of Universidad Nacional de Colombia independently found other individuals in additional locations within the same area. The species is listed as a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://abcbirds.org/news/top-10-most-wanted-lost-birds-2021/">top 10 most wanted lost bird species</a> by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://www.searchforlostbirds.org/">Search for Lost Birds</a>, a collaboration between ABC, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://rewild.org">Re:wild</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.birdlife.org/">BirdLife International</a>. When these birds were found again, ABC and other collaborators immediately joined to help monitor and study this extremely rare population.“After two years of researching the Santa Marta Sabrewing, we have finally made our main results public,” said Lara. “Unveiling the Santa Marta Sabrewing’s story was not only possible through a joint effort between academia, local, and international organizations, but also by collaboration with the local Indigenous communities who coexist with the species. We are grateful for their help as our partnership and research continue to expand, to help implement conservation actions that benefit both the local people and the birds.”During a period of 16 consecutive months, the team located multiple individuals of Santa Marta Sabrewing and carefully monitored their behaviors and territories. When this information was combined with reliable historical accounts, these results suggest that the species maintains year-round territories and may not be an altitudinal migrant as previously speculated. There is also strong evidence that the bird is extremely range-restricted with its presence limited to four nearby localities, all of them on the southeastern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, along the Guatapurí river basin.The study also describes Santa Marta Sabrewing feeding habits and aspects of social and breeding behavior, including territorial and lekking displays, and vocal activity. Field observations and acoustic analyses indicate that male territories, leks, and possibly nesting females all seem to be strongly associated with the presence of riparian forests and watercourses, making the protection of these habitats vital to the bird’s conservation.The<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/wild-about/sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta"> Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta</a> is the world's tallest coastal mountain massif and home to rich communities of wildlife, including 24 species of birds that are found nowhere else on the planet. Although much still remains to be discovered about the Santa Marta Sabrewing, ABC researchers were thrilled when they spotted the elusive bird on a recent expedition and successfully captured “jaw-dropping” images and video.“When we <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/the-new-search-for-lost-birds-aims-to-find-some-of-the-rarest-birds-on-earth">first highlighted</a> the Santa Marta Sabrewing as one of the top 10 lost birds in 2021, the species was a complete enigma,” said John C. Mittermeier, coauthor and Director of the Search for Lost Birds at ABC. “Not only could no one find the sabrewing, but no one really even knew why it had become lost. Now it feels like we have cracked the code behind this amazing species and understand, for the first time, something about it and how it managed to disappear from science for most of the past hundred years. From a Lost Birds perspective, this is just about the most exciting result you can hope for!”These findings are a beacon of hope in an unknown territory and at the same time a call to strengthen the territorial management efforts of various actors in the habitat of the Santa Marta Sabrewing. Even so, researchers and communities understand that their presence is not assured and that it is key to create new forms of conservation that allow the well-being of the inhabitants of the area, and the care of the habitat of this species, to grow together.The rediscovery of the Santa Marta Sabrewing has been celebrated by ornithologists around the world, including those working as part of the<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://abcbirds.org/program/lost-birds/"> Search for Lost Birds</a>. With support from ABC and partners, the research team of Botero-Delgadillo, Lara, Vega, and others are excited to continue studying the sabrewing and developing conservation actions for the species.ABC and its partners have worked closely with the Indigenous communities in the region since the rediscovery of the Santa Marta Sabrewing. Upcoming work on the species will continue this collaboration, including discussions with local communities about further research, conservation measures, and if and how to arrange access for birdwatchers. While ecotourism has been an effective tool for supporting conservation in parts of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, it also has the potential to create challenges for endangered species and people living in the region if not managed carefully. Future conservation actions and ecotourism opportunities will aim to provide lasting and sustainable benefits for both the local communities and the Santa Marta Sabrewing.Birdwatchers interested in observing the species are encouraged to wait for more information before planning a visit. To learn how you can help support the project, visit <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://abcbirds.org/program/lost-birds/">ABC’s Lost Birds Program</a>.

New Research Reveals Habitat, Range and Behavior of the Santa Marta Sabrewing

For more than 20 years, scientists explored the forests of Madagascar in search of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/found-mysterious-songbird-rediscovered-in-madagascar-after-eluding">Dusky Tetraka</a>, a bird that is endemic to the country and one of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/the-new-search-for-lost-birds-aims-to-find-some-of-the-rarest-birds-on-earth">the top 10 most wanted lost birds</a> by the Search for Lost Birds, a collaboration between American Bird Conservancy, BirdLife International and Re:wild. There had been a few possible sightings of the Dusky Tetraka over the years, but the difficulty of identifying the species had left doubt about whether the bird had been found for certain, until a team, co-led by Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, executive director the Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Program, Armand Benjara, a research scientist with the Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Program, and John C. Mittermeier of American Bird Conservancy (ABC), rediscovered the species in Madagascar in late December 2022 and early January 2023.“Rediscoveries are really important, but they can often lead to more questions that conservationists have about lost species or the areas where they are living,” says Christina Biggs, lost species officer for Re:wild. “We need more information in order to determine the next steps to protect a rediscovered species–which could be anything from, nothing because they’re doing fine, to creating protected areas to bolster critically low populations through ex-situ breeding programs.”The rediscovery of the Dusky Tetraka served as the catalyst for a first-of-its-kind expedition by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/lost-species">Search for Lost Species</a> that is about to get underway. In late August 2023, an expedition team will venture to the Makira forest, one of the largest and most intact rainforests remaining in Madagascar, searching for 30 species that are lost to science.&nbsp;“When the original expedition started planning to visit Makira to potentially find more birds, we realized that there could be other lost species–not just birds, but reptiles, mammals, fish and insects–in the same area,” says Biggs. “We developed a plan to try and find as many of them as possible and invited herpetologists, ichthyologists, and entomologists. I’ll be conducting an environmental DNA study to support the findings of the many taxonomists on&nbsp; the expedition. It’s a really exciting next step for the Lost Species program.”After spending months designing and planning the expedition, more than 15 conservationists and researchers from The Peregrine Fund’s Madagascar Project, Wildlife Conservation Society’s Madagascar Program, the University of Antananarivo, the University of Oxford, Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO), Re:wild, and American Bird Conservancy will search for lemurs, fish, invertebrates and reptiles that have not had a documented sighting in at least a decade, though some have been lost for more than a century.The expedition team is optimistic that lost species may still survive in Makira, but based on the rediscovery of the Dusky Tetraka, a search in a remote Malagasy forest is going to be anything but easy.<h2>The journey in search of the Dusky Tetraka</h2>When the Dusky Tetraka expedition team set out in December 2022, their journey involved gruelling hours on bumpy roads, long treks through rivers and harsh weather. To cover more ground, the expedition team split into two groups, targeting two different areas in Madagascar: Masoala and Andapa, where the team spent 14 and 9 days, respectively. Things set off quickly at Masoala where Benjara and his team spotted the tetraka on the very first day of the search there. At Andapa, the search stretched on for days, and eventually, on the last day of the search, Rene de Roland and Mittermeier caught sight of a Dusky Tetraka.“We didn’t find any sign of the Dusky Tetraka for the first week that we were in the forest in Andapa," says Mittermeier. "Without any promising leads, it was hard to stay optimistic and I was seriously beginning to lose hope and doubt that we would have success finding the bird. Then, on our second-to-last day, we happened across two Dusky Tetrakas seemingly out of nowhere. It was amazing.”Both search teams in Andapa and Masoala&nbsp; found the Dusky Tetraka near rocky rivers at mid-elevation, a habitat consistent with previous sightings. If the Dusky Tetraka is in fact a specialist in this type of habitat, that may help explain why it has been so rarely recorded.&nbsp;“Part of the reason it could have been overlooked is because when you’re bird watching, areas next to rushing rivers are actually a habitat that you tend to avoid,” explains Mittermeier. “It is harder to see and hear birds next to rushing rivers so you instinctively tend to spend time on ridges and areas where it is easier to see and hear. Another possibility contributing to the Dusky Tetraka’s elusiveness could be that the specific habitat the species prefers is not present around the popular birding sites in Madagascar. People often tend to go to the same spots again and again which could contribute to the tetraka getting overlooked.”Rene de Roland also highlights that the bird has eluded scientists for years due to its similar colour to that of the surrounding rocks. This camouflage has kept the bird hidden in plain sight.<h2>Deforestation, a threat to species in Madagascar</h2>While scientists still know very little about the Dusky Tetraka and its preferred habitats, it seems very likely the species is threatened by deforestation and habitat loss. The majority of lower and mid-elevation forest in northeastern Madagascar has been cleared, likely leaving very limited habitat for the tetraka and other species that live in that type of forest. Due to the ongoing habitat destruction, there's a pressing need to study the tetraka and other species before the habitat is lost forever."We had the coordinates of the last observation in 1999, and when we went to this place, it had been destroyed and burned to clear for agriculture,” says Rene de Roland. “Vanilla cultivation is very popular around Andapa and is a big problem for the forest there."<h2>The race to beat the clock</h2>“This is a bird that was one of the most poorly known bird species in Madagascar and is listed as data deficient on the current IUCN Red List,” explains Mittermeier. “There are only a handful of species in the world that are currently listed as data deficient. The fact that the tetraka is one of those really highlights how very little we know about it.”Since the rediscovery of the Dusky Tetraka, some members of the expedition team have revisited the areas where it was rediscovered in preparation for the upcoming expedition in Makira. The ornithologists on the expedition team intend on carrying out a targeted search for the tetraka in Makira forest, which is west of the Masoala peninsula and south of Andapa. If the expedition finds the Dusky Tetraka in Makira, it would mean it is more widely distributed and provide valuable insights into the conservation status of the bird.<h2>Timing a search for dozens of lost species</h2>The breeding season for most species in Madagascar spans from September through January, making September the optimal window for the follow-up expedition and to search for them.&nbsp;With 30 species to search for, the specialists on the expedition team will use as many cutting-edge tools as possible to find any traces of each species as quickly as they can.&nbsp;The ichthyologists on the expedition will be searching for three fish species. They’ll try and catch fish using nets and electrofishing before releasing the fish unharmed. (Electrofishing is a technique where scientists send an electric pulse in the water that is specially calibrated to only stun a specific species of fish. If the species is in the area, the scientists can easily catch it, take data on it and then release it unharmed.)Entomologists will use light traps, Malaise traps (traps that look like tents and attract flying invertebrates), and search leaf litter and plants in hopes of finding 12 different insect species and 5 spider species.Several members of the expedition team will be looking for mammals: the Masoala Fork-marked Lemur, which hasn’t had a documented sighting since 2004, the Madagascar Slit-faced Bat which has been lost to science since 1910, and Ellerman’s Tuft-tailed Rat which hasn’t had a documented sighting since 1969.&nbsp;The ornithologists on the expedition team will be focused on finding the Dusky Tetraka again. Beyond obtaining more information about the distribution and conservation status of the tetraka, the team also hopes to learn more generally about the species, if they can find it. That data will be critical for conservationists tasked with designing strategies to protect the Dusky Tetraka."The next important thing is to know its ecology and biology as we need to conserve this bird," says Rene de Roland. "It will be interesting to know its biology and to learn more about this species from this next breeding season before the forest is degraded."The sound recordings of the tetraka obtained during the previous expedition coupled with the insights into its preferred habitat, will hopefully give the team the upper hand on this next expedition.The larger expedition won’t only rely on physically catching animals or getting a glimpse of them alone to determine if the lemurs, bats, reptiles, insects and fish are living in Makira forest. Researchers will also take environmental DNA samples from Makira forest’s rivers,&nbsp; streams and wet soil and analyze the samples in a lab. If scientists find a match for any of the 30 species they are looking for, they’ll know that even if they didn’t see an animal, the species is still in Makira.&nbsp;"It's so incredible to have this larger team that we can potentially look for, not just the tetraka, but other lost species and perhaps discover new species as well," says Biggs.

The rediscovery of a lost bird sparked an effort to find more species in Madagascar

The Dusky Tetraka, a small olive-colored and yellow-throated bird that hops around on the ground and has eluded ornithologists for 24 years, was rediscovered by an expedition team searching the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar. The expedition team, led by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://peregrinefund.org/projects/madagascar">The Peregrine Fund's Madagascar Program</a>, found the species in two different remote sites: one on the Masoala Peninsula in late December 2022 and another near Andapa in January this year. The last documented sighting of the Dusky Tetraka was in 1999, making it one of the top 10 most wanted lost birds by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://abcbirds.org/news/top-10-most-wanted-lost-birds-2021/">Search for Lost Birds</a>, a collaboration between American Bird Conservancy (ABC), BirdLife International, and Re:wild.&nbsp;“Now that we've found the Dusky Tetraka and better understand the habitat it lives in, we can look for it in other parts of Madagascar, and learn important information about its ecology and biology,” said Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, Madagascar Program Director for The Peregrine Fund, and expedition leader. “There is a lot of biodiversity still to discover in Madagascar.”Rene de Roland — who also rediscovered the Madagascar Pochard in 2006 in a remote area of northwestern Madagascar and was a student working with The Peregrine Fund when the Madagascar Serpent Eagle and Red Owl were rediscovered — spent several months searching for the Dusky Tetraka in Madagascar, the only place where it is found. He and his team set out in late December 2022 to search for the tetraka, a warbler-like bird that is part of a family found only in Madagascar, near Andapa. The team had to drive for more than 40 hours and hike for half a day up steep mountains to the last spot the bird had been seen. No ornithologists had returned to the site since 1999.&nbsp;When the team arrived at the spot, they found that much of the forest had been destroyed and converted to vanilla farms even though the area is officially protected as part of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://protectedareas.mg/landscape/show/97?geoShapeFilterField=location&amp;location=49.1113415595436%2C-14.6972761494429%2C49.5496141884195%2C-14.6972761494429%2C49.5496141884195%2C-14.3728090886271%2C49.1113415595436%2C-14.3728090886271%2C49.1113415595436%2C-14.6972761494429&amp;max=8&amp;mediaFilter=no_of_images%2Cno_of_videos%2Cno_of_audio&amp;offset=0&amp;sort=created_on&amp;view=stats">COMATSA Sud protected area</a>. After five days of searching they decided to move to lower elevations, since they had not seen any sign of the bird and realized that the Dusky Tetraka might not live at higher elevations.&nbsp;While Rene de Roland and his team were searching for the tetraka near Andapa, another team from The Peregrine Fund's Madagascar Program, led by Armand Benjara and Yverlin Pruvot, found the bird on the Masoala Peninsula where they caught and released a single Dusky Tetraka in a mist net on December 22. Benjara had been hoping to find the tetraka since he started working as a biologist for The Peregrine Fund.“Seeing the bird for the first time was truly a surprise,” said Benjara. “Our entire team was extremely happy and excited.”On January 1, eight days into the expedition, Rene de Roland's team got their first glimpse of a Dusky Tetraka. While next to a rocky river, John C. Mittermeier, Director of the Search for Lost Birds Program at ABC, finally saw a bird that matched the description of the Dusky Tetraka hopping around in dense undergrowth near the river and snapped a photo of it. After consulting with the rest of the team, they agreed it was the Dusky Tetraka and quickly moved the search to that area.“If Dusky Tetrakas always prefer areas close to rivers, this might help to explain why the species has been overlooked for so long,” said Mittermeier. “Birding in tropical forests is all about listening for bird calls and so you naturally tend to avoid spending time next to rushing rivers where you can't hear anything.”&nbsp;&nbsp;On the last day of the expedition, January 2, the team was able to capture one Dusky Tetraka using a mist net and observe and measure it more closely before releasing it unharmed. The two Dusky Tetrakas they found spent the majority of their time in dense vegetation close to the river, presumably looking for insects and other prey in the damp undergrowth.The Dusky Tetraka has a history of mistaken identity largely because it closely resembles another, much more common species, the Spectacled Tetraka. With so few confirmed observations for the Dusky Tetraka, it has been difficult for ornithologists to compile the species' identifying characteristics. Ahead of the trip, the expedition team reviewed all the historical records of the bird dating back nearly a century to be sure they could positively identify the Dusky Tetraka if they found it.Rene de Roland says the next steps for The Peregrine Fund's Madagascar team will be to look for the Dusky Tetraka again between September and October, when most birds in Madagascar breed. They hope to visit additional sites that match the habitat and elevation where they saw the species in December and January to understand its distribution and conservation status. With the vast majority of the lowland rainforest in northeastern Madagascar already destroyed, it is likely that the Dusky Tetraka is under threat.The Search for Lost Birds looks for species that have not had a documented sighting in at least 10 years. It developed a list of the top 10 most wanted lost birds when it launched in 2021. The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://abcbirds.org/news/santa-marta-sabrewing-rediscovered-2022/">Santa Marta Sabrewing</a>, another of the top 10 lost birds, was rediscovered in Colombia in July 2022 by Yurgen Vega, a biologist working with SELVA, ProCat Colombia, and World Parrot Trust in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The eight birds that have yet to be rediscovered are the Siau Scops-Owl in Indonesia, South Island Kōkakō in New Zealand, Himalayan Quail in India, Itombwe Nightjar in Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuban Kite in Cuba, Negros Fruit Dove in the Philippines, Vilcabamba Brushfinch in Peru, and Jerdon's Courser in India.

Mysterious songbird rediscovered in Madagascar after eluding scientists for 24 years

A team of scientists and conservationists has rediscovered the elusive Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon, a large, ground-dwelling pigeon that only lives on Fergusson Island, a rugged island in the D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago off of eastern Papua New Guinea. Like other pheasant-pigeons, the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon has a broad and laterally compressed tail, which, along with its size, makes it closely resemble a pheasant. The bird has been observed several times over the years by local hunters, but the newly taken photographs and video are the first time the bird has been documented by scientists since 1882, when it was first described. Ornithologists know very little about the species, but believe that the population on Fergusson is very small and decreasing.The research team photographed the pheasant-pigeon with a remote camera trap at the end of a month-long search of Fergusson.&nbsp;“When we collected the camera traps, I figured there was less than a one-percent chance of getting a photo of the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon,” said Jordan Boersma, postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University and co-leader of the expedition team. “Then as I was scrolling through the photos, I was stunned by this photo of this bird walking right past our camera.”“After a month of searching, seeing those first photos of the pheasant-pigeon felt like finding a unicorn,” added John C. Mittermeier, Director of the Lost Birds program at ABC and co-leader of the expedition. “It is the kind of moment you dream about your entire life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.”The expedition team — which included local Papua New Guineans working with Papua New Guinea National Museum, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and American Bird Conservancy — arrived on Fergusson in early September 2022. They spent a month traveling around the island, interviewing local communities to identify locations to set up camera traps in hopes of finding the pheasant-pigeon. The steep, mountainous terrain on Fergusson Island made searching for the bird extremely challenging.&nbsp;“It wasn't until we reached villages on the western slope of Mt. Kilkerran that we started meeting hunters who had seen and heard the pheasant-pigeon,” said Jason Gregg, conservation biologist and a co-leader of the expedition team. “We became more confident about the local name of the bird, which is ‘Auwo,' and felt like we were getting closer to the core habitat of where the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon lives.”The expedition was the first-ever camera trapping study conducted on Fergusson Island. The team placed 12 camera traps on the slopes of Mt. Kilkerran, Fergusson's highest mountain, and deployed an additional eight cameras in locations where local hunters had reported seeing the pheasant-pigeon in the past.&nbsp;“When we finally found the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon, it was during the final hours of the expedition,” said Doka Nason, the member of the team who set up the camera trap that eventually photographed the lost bird. “When I saw the photos, I was incredibly excited.”&nbsp;A local hunter named Augustin Gregory in the village of Duda Ununa west of Mt. Kilkerran provided a breakthrough lead on where to find the bird. Gregory reported seeing the pheasant-pigeon on multiple occasions in an area with steep ridges and valleys and described hearing the bird's distinctive calls.&nbsp;Following Gregory's advice, the team set up cameras in an area of dense forest. A camera placed on a ridge at 3,200 feet (1,000 meters) near the Kwama River above Duda Ununa eventually captured the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon walking on the forest floor two days before the team was scheduled to leave the island.&nbsp;Several members of the team have attempted to find the Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon before. A two-week survey in 2019 by Boermsa, Gregg, and Nason didn't find any traces of the bird, though it did gather reports from local hunters of a bird that could have been the pheasant-pigeon. The results from that survey helped to determine locations for the team to search in 2022.&nbsp;“The communities were very excited when they saw the survey results, because many people hadn't seen or heard of the bird until we began our project and got the camera trap photos,” said Serena Ketaloya, a conservationist from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. “They are now looking forward to working with us to try to protect the pheasant-pigeon.”&nbsp;The team's findings suggest that the pheasant-pigeon is likely to be extremely rare. The rugged and inaccessible forest where they rediscovered the species could be the last stronghold for the species on the island.&nbsp;“The fact that many of the people we interviewed had never seen or heard of the pheasant-pigeon really highlights how elusive this bird is and suggests that it could be extremely sensitive to human disturbance,” said Cosmo Le Breton, who supported the team in the field as a research assistant from Oxford University.“This rediscovery is an incredible beacon of hope for other birds that have been lost for a half century or more,” said Christina Biggs, Manager for the Search for Lost Species at Re:wild. “The terrain the team searched was incredibly difficult, but their determination never wavered, even though so few people could remember seeing the pheasant-pigeon in recent decades.”&nbsp;“As well as giving hope for searches for other lost species, the detailed information collected by the team has provided a basis for conservation of this extremely rare bird, which must indeed be highly threatened, together with the other unique species of Fergusson Island,” said Roger Safford, Senior Program Manager for Preventing Extinctions at BirdLife International.&nbsp;The expedition was supported by American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://abcbirds.org/news/top-10-most-wanted-lost-birds-2021/">The Search for Lost Birds</a>, a collaboration between BirdLife International, ABC, and Re:wild. The Search for Lost Birds identified the pheasant-pigeon for an expedition after a global review revealed it was one of a few bird species that have been lost to science for more than a century.&nbsp;The full expedition team consisted of Jordan Boermsa, Jason Gregg, Doka Nason, Serena Ketaloya, Elimo Malesa, Bulisa Iova, Cosmo Le Breton, and John C. Mittermeier. The expedition was funded by a grant from Cosmo Le Breton to&nbsp;ABC and The Search for Lost Birds.&nbsp;

Large pigeon lost to science for 140 years rediscovered in Papua New Guinea

Siau Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia is small–only 20 kilometers around. Despite its petite size, Siau could still be holding some secrets. Mount Karangetang (also known as Api Siau) on the north side of the island reaches nearly 6,000 feet (1,827 meters) at its highest point. The upper elevations of the volcano, which is still active, are under-explored. But an expedition team with the local Indonesian Forest Management unit, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.burung.org/">Burung Indonesia</a>, a bird conservation organization and partner of BirdLife International, and a local guide, is setting out to survey the island in late October and early November to see if they can find traces of a bird that has been lost to science since 1866: the Siau Scops-owl.“It is a bit of an unknown really, what could be high up on Siau,” says James Eaton, who is working with Burung on the expedition. “If you look on Google maps, the volcano has sulfur and cloud above it, with lots of old lava trails coming down, but it still looks like there’s a little forest around the top.”Siau is part of the Wallacea Biodiversity Hotspot, a region home to more than 270 species of birds found nowhere else on Earth, and the island itself has been identified as an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/pulau-siau-iba-indonesia">Important Bird Area</a> and an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/site/factsheet/16363">Alliance for Zero Extinction</a> site, making it one of the highest priority sites in the world for biodiversity conservation.&nbsp;The one and only documented record of a Siau scops-owl was 156 years ago, when a single individual was found by a Dutch collector visiting Siau in 1866. The only information ornithologists have about the owl, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51481#page/319/mode/1up">which is about five sentences</a>, is from that original specimen.Although there haven’t been any other confirmed sightings of the owl, the Siau scops-owl has not been forgotten. The bird is one of the top 10 most wanted birds by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/the-new-search-for-lost-birds-aims-to-find-some-of-the-rarest-birds-on-earth">Search for Lost Birds</a>, a collaboration between American Bird Conservancy, BirdLife International and Re:wild launched in 2021. And there have been occasional reports of owls on Siau, which have given ornithologists hope that the owl could be hiding&nbsp; in forest patches on the island. In addition to reports of a call that sounds like an owl, there are anecdotal reports of sightings that potentially match the Siau Scops-owl.&nbsp;A video in 2017 of an owl on Siau was the most recent glimmer of hope that the species may have finally been rediscovered.“There was a video of a bird captured by the local community inside a building, but the video sparked a discussion about whether it was actually the Siau Scops-owl that we have been looking for so many years,” says Adi Widyanto, head of conservation and development with Burung. “Some say ‘yes,’ but some doubt it to be the one that we are looking for. There is no conclusion about whether it was Siau Scops-owl.”Recent rediscoveries of other rare Indonesian birds have made the expedition team hopeful. In 2021, the Borean subspecies of the Rajah Scops-owl was <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/news/rajah-scops-owl-rediscovered-in-borneo">rediscovered after nearly 130 years</a>. The Black-browed babbler has a similar history to the Siau Scops-owl. The babbler had only ever been documented once, when it was originally described, but was unexpectedly <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/news/the-black-browed-babbler-an-enigma-that-has-been-missing-and-has-perplexed">rediscovered more than 170 years later.</a>Much of Siau’s forests were destroyed under Dutch colonial rule for plantations to grow cloves, nutmeg and coconut. The patches of forest that remain are small, but they could be enough for the Siau Scops-owl.&nbsp;Other species of scops-owl have been able to adapt to dramatically changed landscapes, which is yet another reason why ornithologists and conservationists are reluctant to stop searching.&nbsp;Local communities and government on Siau are slowly recovering parts of the island. They have converted former agricultural areas and plantations into agroforestry areas.“Scops-owl are very rare in plantations,” explains Ganjar Cahyo Aprianto, conservation program officer with Burung. “But we have found them [on Sangihe Island] on the forest edge and near the forest edge.”&nbsp;On Sangihe, recovering forest fragments offer shelter for a number of endemic bird species including a scops-owl, the Sangihe scops-owl.&nbsp;“On a lot of the slopes on Sangihe, there's quite a lot of good regeneration,” says Eaton. “Quite a few of the endemic birds&nbsp; are moving into areas where previously they had long gone. I can imagine that would be the same on Siau as well.”The expedition team thinks several scenarios could be possible concerning the whereabouts of the Siau Scops-owl.&nbsp;“This scops-owl may have just disappeared close to villages,” says Ferry Hasudungan, conservation program coordinator for Sangihe Island with Burung. “Or maybe the owl has a breeding area in the natural forest and moved out of the area nearest the plantations.”The last comprehensive survey of Siau was in 1995, and although the survey covered much of the island, researchers didn’t venture higher than 1,150 feet (350 meters). This time, the search team is targeting three areas between 1,950 and 2,600 feet (600 to 800 meters). They’ll stay at each sight for two nights, searching for any owls with spotlights and recording equipment.&nbsp;Scops-owls are nocturnal, and their most active hunting times are at dusk and dawn. The search team, which includes the island’s forest management unit, plans to visit each forest plot at night. In addition to listening for calls, the team will play recordings of related scops-owl species in hopes of getting a response. If they do, they will try to catch the owl answering the call in the light of their headlamps or spot it with a thermal imaging scope. The definitive proof they will need to officially rediscover the species will be a photo, or an unmistakable sound recording which researchers are confident could not have been made by any other owl.&nbsp;The weather will be the biggest challenge the team has to contend with. This year has been a La Niña year, and it rained every day from June to October. If the rains don’t subside, it will be too wet and difficult to search the forests at night.“​​The meteorological office predicted at the beginning of the year that the dry season will be somewhat wet,” says Ferry Hasudungan.&nbsp;But a break in the weather came in September and the expedition team hopes it will stay.The search for the scops-owl on Siau builds on conservation work by Burung Indonesia on the neighboring island of Sangihe. Sangihe is home to several endemic and threatened species. Burung and its government partners are leading a six-year monitoring program on the island to better understand the populations of several of them.&nbsp;&nbsp;In 2020, they completed a baseline survey of the birds living in high-quality habitat on Sangihe. Their results were promising and they even managed to catch a glimpse of a possible <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/sangihe-white-eye-zosterops-nehrkorni/text">Sangihe White-eye</a>, another lost bird species. The white-eye is Critically Endangered and has only been spotted four times since it was described by science with the last documented record in the late 1990s.&nbsp;Following the baseline surveys, Burung and local government partners are working with local communities on Sangihe to protect forested areas that are home to rare species like the Sangihe White-eye, Sangihe Whistler, and Sangihe Golden-Bulbul. Together Burung, the government, and communities have implemented patrols and eliminated habitat disturbances.&nbsp;“We’re starting to see even rare animals recolonize the habitats,” says Adi Widyanto, with Burung.

An expedition is preparing to search for an owl that hasn’t been seen in more than a century

An experienced local birdwatcher in Colombia rediscovered the Santa Marta Sabrewing (Campylopterus phainopeplus), a relatively large hummingbird only found in the country's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains. It's only the second time the species has had a documented sighting since it was first collected in 1946. The last time was in 2010, when researchers captured the first-ever photos of the species in the wild. The Santa Marta Sabrewing is so rare and elusive that it was included as one of the top 10 most wanted lost birds by the<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/the-new-search-for-lost-birds-aims-to-find-some-of-the-rarest-birds-on-earth"> Search for Lost Birds</a>.“This sighting was a complete surprise, but a very welcome one,” said Yurgen Vega, who made the rediscovery while working with<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://oldselva.selvaorg.xyz/es/"> SELVA</a>,<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://procat-conservation.org/"> ProCAT Colombia,</a>&nbsp;and<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://parrots.org/"> World Parrot Trust</a> to study endemic birds in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. “As I was leaving the area where I had been working, a hummingbird caught my attention. I got out my binoculars and was shocked to see that it was a Santa Marta Sabrewing, and in an incredible stroke of luck the hummingbird perched on a branch, giving me time to take photos and video.”The male hummingbird was instantly recognizable by its emerald-green feathers, bright iridescent-blue throat, and curved black bill. It was perched on a branch, vocalizing and singing, which scientists think is a behavior associated with defending territory and courtship. However, Vega did not see any other hummingbirds in the area, though there have been sporadic reports of Santa Marta Sabrewing sightings during the past decade by other local birdwatchers. Researchers believe the population of Santa Marta Sabrewings in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is very small and decreasing. The species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, though it was historically common in the southeastern part of the mountains.The<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/wild-about/sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta"> Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta</a> is the world's tallest coastal mountain massif and home to rich communities of wildlife, including 24 species of birds that are found nowhere else on the planet. It partially overlaps with five Key Biodiversity Areas, which are sites of global importance to the planet's overall health and the persistence of biodiversity. It is also an<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://zeroextinction.org/"> Alliance for Zero Extinction</a> site due to the multiple species there that are found nowhere else.“This rediscovery is tremendous, and it makes me hopeful that we will start to better understand this mysterious and threatened bird,” said Esteban Botero-Delgadillo, Director of Conservation Science with SELVA: Research for Conservation in the Neotropics. “However, we found it in an area that is unprotected, which means that it is critically important for conservationists, local communities, and government institutions to work together to learn more about the hummingbirds and protect them and their habitat before it's too late.”Scientists know very little about the Santa Marta Sabrewing, except that it typically lives in humid Neotropical forests at mid-elevations between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. Ornithologists believe that the hummingbird may be migratory, moving up to even higher elevations in the páramo — an ecosystem of grass and shrubs — during the rainy season, in search of flowering plants. Much of the forest in the Santa Marta Mountains has been cleared for agriculture, and scientists estimate that only 15 percent remains.“Technology has made it much easier to gain and share knowledge about the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and its inhabitants,” said Diego Zárrate, Director of Conservation with ProCAT Colombia. “This is a great example of what we can learn about the biodiversity of this area when local communities and conservationists work together.”The rediscovery of the Santa Marta Sabrewing is being celebrated by ornithologists around the world, including those working as part of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://abcbirds.org/program/lost-birds">Search for Lost Birds</a>, a collaboration between Re:wild, American Bird Conservancy (ABC), and BirdLife International.“It's so incredible to see photos and video of the Santa Marta Sabrewing,” said John C. Mittermeier, Director of Threatened Species Outreach at ABC. “It's like seeing a phantom. When we announced the top 10 most wanted lost birds last year, we hoped that it would inspire birders to look for these species. And as this rediscovery shows, sometimes lost species re-emerge when we least expect it. Hopefully, rediscoveries like this will inspire conservation action.”

Rare singing, emerald-green and iridescent-blue hummingbird unexpectedly rediscovered in Colombia

Nearly 2,300 feet straight up. That was the climb an expedition team faced in the Murrucucú mountains in Alto Sinú in Colombia’s department of Córdoba to reach their base camp. Local guides sometimes had to carve out steps for the rest of the team to scramble up the mountain side. For stretches, the mountainside was so steep the expedition team used ropes to pull themselves up. But the climb was well worth it.&nbsp; &nbsp; Every morning for 10 days in late February and early March 2021, 10 members of the expedition team climbed from the base camp to a plateau with low premontane tropical forest on the northern slope of the Murrucucú <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/press/expedition-to-alto-sinu-finds-dozens-of-species-of-birds-new-to-cordoba">in hopes of finding the Sinú Parakeet</a>. The small green, red and blue parakeet is one of Re:wild’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/lost-species">top 25 most wanted lost species</a>. There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of the avian mountain-dweller since 1949, but the Murrucucú mountains are largely unexplored and could have been hiding the parakeet as well as other species.&nbsp;“The avifauna up there was absolutely strikingly different,” says Diego Calderón-Franco, an ornithologist leading the expedition.Until the expedition to find the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.rewild.org/lost-species/sinu-parakeet">Sinú Parakeet</a>, which included a team of local naturalists, biologists, university students and rangers from the National Parks Authority, there had never been a complete ornithological survey of Alto Sinú due to Colombia’s decades-long violent civil conflict.&nbsp; &nbsp; The expedition didn’t find the Sinú Parakeet, but what they did find has made them hopeful that the colorful parakeet may still live in one of the nearby mountain ranges that make up the northern part of the western Andes.&nbsp;“Even though the ecosystem we found has been somewhat disturbed, it's still preserved, supporting many different species,” says Hugo Alejandro Herrera Gómez, president of Sociedad Ornitológica de Córdoba and a leader of the expedition. “Not only does the ecosystem support birds, but also many types of life. I am very hopeful of finding the parakeet in there.” Local communities around Alto Sinú were a critical part of the initial search and they are helping the effort to document the species in the mountains and continue the search for the Sinú Parakeet. Their local knowledge and enthusiasm for the search largely made it a success.New bird species for Córdoba departmentThe expedition documented 238 species of birds during their survey. Of those about 22 had never been documented in the department of Córdoba before. The new species means there are now around 589 species of birds known to live in the department. Several of the dozens of new species were found by the local naturalists and guides on the expedition.The expedition team focused their search on two different types of habitat with plants that they suspected may attract a species like the Sinú Parakeet. They spent hours observing the species of birds that visited fruiting palm trees, fig trees and other fruiting trees.&nbsp;“We really invested time on those not only because of the parakeet, but because we were also finding new species for Córdoba, in those places,” says Calderón-Franco.&nbsp; &nbsp; The very first day of the expedition, as the team was ascending to a ridge via a trail carved out of the mountainside by the local guides, Diego Calderón-Franco, the lead biologist caught a glimpse of a Sharpbill. The tiny olive-and-yellow bird is rare. It’s only been seen in Colombia four other times. Calderón-Franco frantically called to the other team members to capture a photo of the bird, but it flew away before anyone else could get in position to see it.“​​This bird has only been found in Colombia a few times in the San Lucas mountain range in the northern, central Andes, and in the Chocó,” explains Calderón-Franco. “It is one of the rarest birds in the country.” &nbsp; The team tried desperately to attract the bird by playing callbacks, or recordings of its own calls, in hopes it would respond and return. But it didn’t make another appearance. &nbsp; Three days later, Johan Arley Villalba Ogaza, a field assistant and a local tour guide with Sinú Travel, was looking through photos he had taken. He asked some team members if they recognized a bird he had photographed just a few minutes earlier while climbing the ridge with the lunches for the expedition team. He showed them the photo on the screen of his camera—it was the Sharpbill. The photo was the definitive proof the expedition needed that the bird they had seen was a Sharpbill and its range included the Murrucucú mountains.Not lost, but as equally elusiveOne of the biggest sightings on the expedition practically sneaked up on the team. After a morning of surveying birds not too far from their base camp, they were heading back for lunch and were stopped in their tracks on the trail. Yulisa María Navarro Gandía, a junior researcher with Sociedad Ornitológica de Córdoba, whispered to Calderón-Franco what was causing the hold up: a Correcaminos, also known as a Roadrunner or a Ground-cuckoo. &nbsp; They only saw the Ground-cuckoo, a ground-dwelling bird with a long tail and a crest on its head, for a few seconds, but that was a few seconds more than most. It’s extremely secretive and difficult for even trained ornithologists to find. Ground-cuckoos follow swarming army ants to pick off prey that escape the swarm. They eat everything from insects to snakes and other small birds. &nbsp; As the bird scurried off, running along the forest floor, the team could hear it’s telltale bill-snap. The glimpse was not enough to determine exactly what species of Ground-Cuckoo the team saw—there are four species of ground-cuckoos in Colombia and a couple of those could possibly be found in the Murrucucú—but it was enough to elicit a thrill.Curious squirrelsThe Murrucucú were not only bustling with birds, the team also found many species of mammals. They saw sloths, monkeys and kinkajous to name a few.&nbsp;One mammal stopped them in their tracks. It was a dwarf squirrel with white ears. The squirrel didn’t match the description of any known species and the expedition team thinks it may be new to science, though they need more evidence to confirm it.A sensational snakeThough birds and the Sinú Parakeet were the main objective for the expedition, Carlos Mario Bran-Castrillón and Willian Alexander Brand-Castrillón, the expedition’s herpetologists, were also searching for amphibians and reptiles. Their curiosity about and affection for snakes and amphibians infected the entire expedition team.“The second snake we encountered was a species I had wanted to see for many years. Seeing it on a field trip was very nice,” said Carlos Mario Bran-Castrillón. “The frog species were also fascinating, particularly the glass frogs we encountered at the end of the excursion.” &nbsp; The expedition’s rarest snake find was a Chocoan Lancehead. The snake is so rare, not even the herpetologists had seen one in the wild before. Chocoan Lancehead snakes are venomous snakes with beautiful brown square patterns. They spend much of their time camouflaged on the forest floor, or not far from it, waiting to ambush prey that wander within striking distance of their hiding places. The females give birth to live young, hatching clutches of eggs inside their bodies.“Having experts in herpetology in the expedition was a plus,” says Eduar Luiz Páez Núñez, a junior researcher with Sociedad Ornitológica de Cordóba. “It was very productive to learn about Alto Sinú amphibians and snakes. The Bothrops punctatus [Chocoan Lancehead] was one of the species that drew the most attention for its color pattern and dangerousness.”Amazing amphibiansThe amphibians of the Murrucucú Mountains are as little studied as the birds. One of the frogs the team found was a tiny red frog known as Andinobates victimatus, a species only known from the neighboring Urabá region. It would be the first record of the species in the Murrucucú. The species is named in honor of the victims of the civil conflict that has caused Urabá, and the Murrucucú mountains to be underexplored.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; “I didn't expect to see the red frog; furthermore, I didn't even know it existed,” says Enith Martinez Salcedo, the camp cook from Tierralta, a town at the base of the Murrucucú. “It was a huge surprise to see it in person.”Birds of preySongbirds and flycatchers weren’t the only types of birds the team saw. The Murrucucú are also home to birds of prey.&nbsp;“This mountain supports a ton of big raptors,” says Calderón-Franco. “We got Ornate Hawk-eagle, Crested Eagle, Black-and-white Hawk-eagle, Barred Hawk, big animals that are apex predator birds. That also talks about the quality of the habitat there.”&nbsp;Predators can only thrive in healthy ecosystems that can support them, and members of the expedition team were just as excited about the possibility of seeing them as they were about searching for the Sinú Parakeet.&nbsp;&nbsp;“I wanted to see several species,” says Herrera Gómez. “Besides the parakeet, I had a list of about 10 species I dreamed of seeing. I remember being most excited about seeing the Ornate Hawk-eagle or Spizaetus ornatus, and it appeared twice. It was spectacular. My dream came true.”Precocious plantsAlthough wildlife was the main focus of the expedition, the flora of the Murrucucú is similarly under-studied. Based on some of the plants the team saw, the Murrucucú is home to plants endemic to Colombia.&nbsp;One tree in particular stopped them in their tracks. The tree had little flowers growing directly out of its trunk, which is unusual. The team couldn’t identify it in the field, but they think it’s likely that it’s in the cocoa family. After consulting with other botanists, they think it may have been only the third time ever that the tree (Theobroma cf. cirmolinae) has been documented in Colombia.The search continuesAlthough the expedition team didn’t find the Sinú Parakeet hiding in the Murrucucú, the number of unexpected discoveries they made in the forest has given them hope that the bird may still be there or living in a different underexplored part of Colombia.&nbsp;“I do have hope and I think it is possible that the parakeet is here in the Paramillo National Park,” says Daniel Alvarado, a field assistant with Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. “We just have to keep looking for it.”&nbsp;A second expedition, organized by Sociedad Ornitologica de Córdoba and American Bird Conservancy, is hoping to set out sometime in the next year.

An expedition for a lost bird finds dozens of other species thriving in a dense Colombian forest

An expedition team in Venezuela, led by ornithologist David Ascanio and supported by American Bird Conservancy (ABC), rediscovered the Urich's Tyrannulet last month. There have only been three confirmed sightings of the small flycatcher since it was first described in 1899. The second sighting was in the 1940s and the third in 2005. With so few records, the Urich's Tyrannulet is one of the most poorly known birds in South America, and with its cloud forest habitat being cleared for agriculture, scientists fear this endemic species could soon be at risk of going extinct. The expedition team was able to prove its continued existence, capturing the first clear photos of the tyrannulet and the first-ever recording of its call, shedding light on its behavior and ecology.“It's like a little tiny Shrek,” says Ascanio of the olive-green bird, which is similar in color to the popular movie character. “It's not as striking as many of the other birds in the same forest, and it has a shrill call, but if it's there it means that the forest is healthy. It's aligned with the presence of all these other wonderful forest birds and other species. I was shaking with excitement when we first saw it!”The mountains in northeastern Venezuela where the tyrannulet lives are part of a unique ecosystem home to plants and animals found nowhere else. Among these are birds such as the White-tipped Quetzal, Handsome Fruiteater, and the Endangered Venezuelan Sylph, all of which the team observed in the forest with the tyrannulet.For researchers at American Bird Conservancy and Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's global eBird database initially helped to bring the Urich's Tyrannulet to their attention. “Urich's Tyrannulet was one of only sixteen species of birds in all of South America that no one had reported in eBird in the past 10 years, so it immediately stood out to us as one of the most poorly known birds on the continent,” says John C. Mittermeier, Director of Threatened Species Outreach at ABC. “Considering that it is also Endangered and that much of the habitat in its small range has disappeared since it was last seen, trying to find the tyrannulet and confirm that it had not gone extinct was an important conservation priority for us.” eBird also helped to highlight the lack of information regarding what the tyrannulet looks and sounds like. The bird had no sound recordings in the database and only a single blurry photograph, taken by Ascanio in 2005.Thanks to Ascanio and his team's discovery, some of these knowledge gaps have now been filled. For the first time, we know for certain what the Urich's Tyrannulet looks and sounds like. Ascanio and his team have <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ebird.org/species/urityr1">archived their observations and media in Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library</a>, where it is publicly available for research and conservation efforts. Along with the new findings on where this bird lives, this information can help conservation groups begin taking steps needed to protect it.Ascanio and his five-person expedition team set out on a six-day search for the tyrannulet that began May 11. Their route through the mountains traversed areas once visited by the famed naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and included the habitat of many species sought by birdwatchers, like the only nocturnal fruit-eating bird, the Oilbird.The expedition team originally hoped to revisit the location where the last confirmed Urich's Tyrannulet sighting had been made in 2005 by Ascanio and Mark Sokol, a music professor and fellow birdwatcher. But in the years since the sighting, the forest where Ascanio and Sokol had seen the species had been almost completely clear-cut and converted to grassland.Forced to find a new location for the bird, the team used satellite images and suggestions from local people to identify two sites that seemed potentially promising. They also received a lead on a third site from an unexpected source: Ascanio was scrolling through Instagram when he noticed a photo of a thickly forested mountainside alleged to have been taken near Yucucual in the state of Monagas, not far from a location where a specimen of Urich's Tyrannulet had been collected in 1943. &nbsp;He contacted the photographer, Carlos Matheus, and after hearing a bit more about the forest, Ascanio decided to add the location to their tyrannulet search.When the team members arrived in the mountains, they found to their dismay that one of the three sites had already been heavily degraded, with many of the forest-dwelling birds gone. At another, it rained so hard that it was impossible to search for birds. In the area around Yucucual, however, they found a beautifully forested hillside, just as in the Instagram photo. And, with luck, the weather was perfectly clear.The forest at Yucucual, called Yucucual-Mata de Mango, resembled the one where Ascanio had originally seen the Urich's Tyrannulet in 2005. Its dense canopy, which only allowed sporadic patches of sunshine to break through, had vines hanging from trees, and was filled with raucous bird songs, another encouraging sign.Even in this beautiful forest, however, finding the first Urich's Tyrannulets in over a decade was no easy task. The team searched for 10 hours before, suddenly and much to their delight, a pair of the small greenish-olive birds swooped down and perched on a branch in the lower part of the canopy. The next morning, the team was able to find a second pair and record their calls for the first time.The sightings also gave ornithologists the first chance to describe some aspects of the Urich's Tyrannulet's behavior and habitat, and to accurately document what it looks like in life. The bird constantly cocks its tail, a behavior commonly seen in warblers and some other tyrant-flycatchers, and seems to only live in forests with emergent trees, those reaching above the canopy. The tyrannulet also has a pale base to its lower mandible and an ill-defined line in the lower part of the face. These details are hard to detect on museum specimens and had been missing from descriptions and illustrations of the species.“It's amazing that these forests still harbor surprises and practically unknown species,” says Lina Valencia, Andean Country Coordinator for Re:wild, which helps scientists search for lost species around the world. “Expeditions to remote areas like Yucucual-Mata de Mango are extremely difficult, but it's really encouraging to find such a rare species like Urich's Tyrranulet.”With so much of the forest in the area gone, Yucucual-Mata de Mango may be one of the only places left where the Urich's Tyrannulet still survives. Ascanio hopes that with the help of the local community, this forest will become a destination for birders and ecotourists, and that the habitat, the tyrannulet, and the many other unique species living there will be protected for years to come.Expedition team members:David Ascanio. Coauthor “Birds of Venezuela” (2017). Associate research Colección Ornitológica Phelps. Coordinator of the search team.Pedro Cabello. Ecologist. Nature guide. Search team and field checklists manager.Tomás Odehnal. Transportation. Food and lodging logistics. Naturalist. Field assistance.Carlos Matheus. Nature guide. Photographer that provided details of the locations visited. Field planning considering COVID regulations and community access. Field assistance.Thore Noernberg. Nature guide. Field assistance.

FOUND: After dodging rediscovery for nearly 16 years, a tiny bird reveals itself to expedition in Venezuela

After more than 170 years, locals in Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia, have helped rediscover the lost Black-browed Babbler. The bird has been missing since it was first described and collected by scientists around 1848. Since then, the trail to find the Black-browed Babbler has gone cold, despite several attempts to find it, leaving scientists in the dark about its ecology, population, and behavior. Many feared the species might have been extinct. The rediscovery was published in <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="FOUND: Locals and Scientists Rediscover the Black-browed Babbler in Borneo After 172 Years">Oriental Bird Club's journal BirdingASIA</a> today, Feb. 25.“Globally, there are more than 150 bird species that are currently ‘lost,' with no confirmed observations in the past 10 years,” said John C. Mittermeier, Director of Threatened Species Outreach at American Bird Conservancy (ABC). “ABC, Global Wildlife Conservation, BirdLife International, and eBird are working together to help find these species. Hopefully, the rediscovery of the Black-browed Babbler will spark interest in finding other lost bird species in Asia and around the world.”Muhammad Suranto and Muhammad Rizky Fauzan rediscovered the elusive Black-browed Babbler in October 2020 during a weekly trip to gather forest products in Southern Kalimantan Province, Borneo. After accidentally capturing a bird, which neither recognized, they took some photos and then released it unharmed back to the forest. They sent the photos to the local birdwatching group BW Galeatus in hopes that they would be able to identify it.The group suspected it might be the Black-browed Babbler, and immediately contacted ornithologists Panji Gusti Akbar, Teguh Willy Nugroho, and Ding Li Yong, who compared the photos taken in southern Kalimantan to a current field guide description and photos of the only known specimen of the species, at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands.“It was a bit like a ‘Eureka!' moment,” said Gusti Akbar, of the Indonesian bird conservation group Birdpacker and lead author of the paper. “This bird is often called ‘the biggest enigma in Indonesian ornithology.' It's mind-blowing to think that it's not extinct and it's still living in these lowland forests, but it's also a little scary because we don't know if the birds are safe or how much longer they may survive.”The new photos of a live Black-browed Babbler immediately yielded new information about the species. Scientists now have a better understanding of the species' true coloration. The babbler's iris, bill, and legs were slightly different colors than that of the original specimen, but the difference was not surprising to scientists, since those areas often lose their tint and are artificially colored during the taxidermy process.The rediscovery is helping scientists and conservationists answer questions that have been swirling for more than a century. Scientists had never been sure where the bird lived in the wild. The original and only specimen collected by German geologist and naturalist Carl A.L.M. Schwaner between 1843 and 1848, and described by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850, was initially mislabeled and described as being from Java. In 1895, naturalist Johann Büttikofer found that the specimen could not have been from Java because Schwaner had not collected any birds on the island. After reviewing and scrutinizing records of Schwaner's travel in Indonesia, scientists speculated that he may have found the bird near the city of Martapura or Banjarmasin in Borneo.“I think it is amazing that we managed to document one of the most remarkable zoological discoveries in Indonesia, largely through online communication, in the midst of the pandemic, which has hampered us from visiting the site,” said Teguh Willy Nugroho, who works in Sebangau National Park in Kalimantan and is one of the coauthors on the paper.Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, scientists have not been able to travel to the area where the Black-browed Babbler was found, but they are working on a second paper to document its ecology and are hoping to work with local government agencies to plan expeditions later this year.“When the species was first discovered, now-extinct birds like the Great Auk and Passenger Pigeon were still alive,” said Yong, a co-author on the paper and a Singapore-based conservationist with BirdLife International. “There is now a critical window of opportunity for conservationists to secure these forests to protect the babbler and other species.”Scientists know very little about the Black-browed Babbler, but the Indonesian authors of the paper are hoping to work with local government agencies to quickly change that. They plan to travel to Borneo to identify exactly where the species lives, interview locals, study the babbler's behavior, and assess the population — information that could be used to recommend a new status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The bird is currently listed as Data Deficient and scientists are hoping to determine if and to what extent the species is threatened with extinction.“Discoveries like this are incredible and give us so much hope that it's possible to find other species that have been lost to science for decades or longer,” said Barney Long, Global Wildlife Conservation's (GWC's) Senior Director of Species Conservation and a lead on GWC's Search for Lost Species program. “Collaborations between conservationists, local communities, and Indigenous peoples are crucial to learning about and saving these elusive species.”There are more than 1,600 species of birds that live across the Indonesian archipelago. Scientists are hoping that the discovery may rekindle interest in surveying birds in under-researched areas. GWC and ABC, BirdLife International, and eBird are working to mount searches for lost birds around the world.Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) changed its name to Re:wild in 2021.

FOUND: Locals and scientists rediscover the Black-browed Babbler in Borneo after 172 years

This week in northwestern Colombia, a team of researchers is searching for the Sinú Parakeet (Pyrrhura subandina), a species that has not been officially documented in more than 70 years. After decades of violent civil conflict, one of the many benefits of peace in Colombia has been the chance to discover if, after all these years, this endemic species remains hidden in the country's threatened yet under-explored forests.Located on Colombia's Caribbean coast, most of the department of Córdoba is made up of lowlands under 330 feet (100 meters) in elevation. Named for the river that bisects the department, the Sinú Parakeet was last documented in 1949, in the dry forests of the country's foothills. Since then, cattle ranching, farming, and illegal logging have all taken a toll on this forest: “Ninety percent of the dry forest has disappeared,” according to Hugo Herrera Gomez, President of Sociedad Ornitológica de Córdoba.Once believed a subspecies of the Painted Parakeet (Pyrrhura picta), the Sinú Parakeet was only recently recognized as a separate species, many decades after the last individual was seen alive. As a result, very little is known about its reproduction, nutritional requirements, ecology, or behavior. Moreover, Colombia's civil conflict (which officially ended with a 2016 peace deal between the government and FARC) disrupted research in the country's forests for decades, making it impossible to find out if the parakeet still inhabits them. Some local farmers have described seeing a bird with similar characteristics in recent years, but no hard evidence has surfaced proving that the bird has been found.This expedition seeks to remedy that. “It's a species that is unique to the department, unique to the country, and unique to the world,” says Herrera Gomez. “Something has to be done to protect the species, if it is still out there.”<h2>The expedition</h2>In late February, a team of 14 biologists and local residents, including those who may have spotted the parakeet, will embark on a 10-day expedition to search for the bird, which is one of Global Wildlife Conservation's <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/sinu-parakeet/">25 “most wanted” lost species</a>. The search, which Herrera Gomez calls “a dream come true,” is a collaboration between Sociedad Ornitológica de Córdoba, Asociación Calidris, and Colombia's national park authority, with support from Global Wildlife Conservation and American Bird Conservancy. Herrera Gomez also stresses that without the enthusiasm and support of the nearby communities, this expedition would not be possible. The local organizations supporting the expedition include Urra SA ESP, Vortex Colombia, Colombia Birding, Café de Cordoba, and Urabá Nature Tours.The team will search the relatively well-preserved highland forest around Alto Sinú, where the last parakeet sightings were reported in 1949. While this area is known to be important habitat for other endemic and endangered birds, including the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="ek-link" href="https://abcbirds.org/bird/blue-billed-curassow/">Blue-billed Curassow</a> and the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ebird.org/species/chwcha1">Chestnut-winged Chachalaca</a>, there &nbsp;has never been a complete ornithological study conducted there, although there were expeditions mounted to search for the Sinú Parakeet between 2004 and 2005, by Fundación ProAves. In Alto Sinú, there is basically no recorded data from altitudes above 1,300 feet (400 meters). The researchers will split up into small groups and walk transects through the forest, noting the species they observe and listening for vocalizations. They will then upload the lists of avian species they record to eBird, a popular tool for scientists and birdwatchers that is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.<h2>What will they find?</h2>Herrera Gomez is optimistic that the team will find the Sinú Parakeet, citing other rare and “lost” parakeet species. In 1999, a group of researchers sponsored by American Bird Conservancy and Loro Parque Fundación found the rare Yellow-eared Parrot. Before its re-emergence, ornithologists were wondering if the species had been lost. Then, a decade after researchers found 81 of the parrots high in the Colombian Andes, a second population was found in foothill forests. The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/perija-parakeet-pyrrhura-caeruleiceps">Perijá Parakeet</a> and Indigo-winged Parrot were also both once lost to science. The Indigo-winged Parrot was rediscovered as recently as 2002 after decades of civil conflict prevented scientific surveys from being conducted. Herrera Gomez's bigger concern is that if the Sinú Parakeet still exists, its population is likely quite small, which will make it harder to find.No matter what the expedition finds, it will undoubtedly be a step forward for science. “Because this area has not been well studied before, even if they don't find the parakeet, [they] will have lots of new info they can bring back from the field,” Herrera Gomez says. “Anything new will be interesting.”

After years of conflict, might a lost parakeet species reveal itself in this Colombian forest?

Costa Rica is a bustling and diverse hotspot for wildlife, where over 50 species of hummingbird have made their home. But one of these ‒ a little-known species lost to science for 125 years ‒ has spurred a new search among the tropical Costa Rican forests.No one alive today has ever seen the mysterious Alfaro’s Hummingbird (also known as the Guanacaste Hummingbird), one of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://rewild.org/lost-species/lost-birds">GWC’s most wanted lost birds</a> and categorised by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Critically Endangered. But a question mark still hangs over its current status. That’s because only one individual of the hummingbird has ever been collected ‒ in 1895, on the slopes of the Miravalles Volcano in northwest Costa Rica. And it’s also why an expedition to this region by GWC, in partnership with the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), is currently underway to probe the Alfaro’s Hummingbird’s possible whereabouts. If successfully found, it’ll help conservationists develop ways to protect the species from being lost forever.A tricky candidateThe team setting out to search for the hummingbird is led by Ernesto Carman, a naturalist and bird guide from Costa Rica. Over the following year, each member of the four-person team will scout out the forests of the Miravalles Volcano, focusing their efforts on the southern slopes where the hummingbird was first collected. They’ll capture photos of any birds they can that match the description of the Alfaro’s species: a medium-sized hummingbird measuring about four inches with a green belly and throat, bluish-green back and dark tail. The team will look out for certain flowers that hummingbirds are attracted to for their nectar as a leading point and set up nets there to try and trap--and release--likely candidates. Because the information on the hummingbird’s location is so vague--found in just one unspecified spot on the volcano--the team will expand their search to other parts of Miravalles, as well as the surrounding volcanoes and national parks in the Guanacaste province.But it won’t be easy to track it down. Not only does it remain to be seen whether it is still out there, the Alfaro’s Hummingbird also shares extremely similar features to other, more common hummingbird species in the region. One example is the Blue-vented Hummingbird found in both Costa Rica and neighbouring Nicaragua, which sports features identical to that of the Alfaro’s Hummingbird. The main difference is that the Alfaro’s species has a blue-tinted forehead.“It may actually be very difficult to tell the species apart in the field just by looking at it or taking a photograph of it ‒ if the light’s not right, it’s going to look just like one of the similar species. So in the case of this hummingbird, it’ll be very important to be able to catch it and get a much closer look,” says Carman.&nbsp;This striking resemblance has also meant that, ever since its discovery, there has been debate among ornithologists about how to classify the Alfaro’s Hummingbird. Is it a distinct species or was the individual from 1895 simply the hybrid offspring of two other hummingbird species? This has consequences for whether the hummingbird may be considered ‘lost’ in the first place.&nbsp;“If you have a hybrid, it may have been something that occurred just once… That is still one of the most accepted possibilities that make people put it to one side and not even think about it,” Carman points out. “So there’s too little information to know right now [why it might be lost].”A detailed analysis of the single existing specimen in 2016 suggested that the Alfaro’s Hummingbird should indeed be recognised as its own species. This can be put down to subtle differences between the specimen and similar-looking species, including the Indigo-capped Hummingbird of central Colombia. Compared to this species, for example, the Alfaro’s Hummingbird has a longer bill and tail, and slightly different feather colorings, such as a more continuously green chin to belly. This expedition marks an important advance in verifying this classification and, if it proves correct, determining whether the Alfaro’s Hummingbird has gone extinct or might still be dwelling in the Costa Rican forests.Protecting lost speciesIf it is a distinct species, the hummingbird may have seemingly disappeared due to changes in its habitat, like many lost species before it. Though the area around the Miravalles Volcano has undergone habitat loss, its lower regions have recently started to regenerate, thanks to the maintenance of ‘buffer zones’ of undisturbed habitat for the geothermal power plants located at the volcano’s base. But Carman thinks that the Alfaro’s Hummingbird will probably be found higher up on the slopes. This is because the lower area of the volcano is a much larger, single and connected habitat, making it unlikely that the hummingbird would specifically evolve there and not occur elsewhere.&nbsp;“If you’re looking for a species that’s quite particular and restricted, it’s going to be in a more specialized habitat that you would find higher up on the slopes, where you start getting this kind of island situation, which gives you different climate and weather and so on,” Carman says.The Miravalles Volcano gained national park status in 2019, protecting the area from drastic habitat changes, but climate change remains an ever-pressing danger to the local wildlife. Shorter rainy seasons and longer dry spells will drive birds to higher elevations where it is cooler, but for those that have already made their home in the upper parts of the volcano ‒ like the Alfaro’s Hummingbird may have done ‒ there is nowhere else to go. If found, these effects could be the biggest threat to the hummingbird’s existence.&nbsp;An effective conservation plan would depend on where the bird was spotted, Carman says. If it is found higher up on the volcano, for example, there would need to be urgent research into whether it exists in the same regions of neighboring volcanoes, such as the Tenorio Volcano, to specifically protect these areas. There’s also scope to expand conservation efforts to include other species that co-inhabit the region but haven’t been seen in many years.“We are very hopeful that this search will rediscover a species that hasn't been recorded in over a century.” says Amy Upgren, ABC’s Director of Alliance for Zero Extinction and Key Diversity Areas Program. “But even if the hummingbird isn't found, the expedition should lead to improved knowledge of several other poorly understood birds.” As to why the team thinks the Alfaro’s Hummingbird could still be out there, the answer is simple. “Nobody has ever specifically looked for it,” says Carman. “Very few people have actually gone birdwatching up this volcano because there is no public access or official trails… It’s really limited how many people go there and nobody’s really aware of the possibility of the Alfaro’s Hummingbird existing anyway.”&nbsp;“It would be quite phenomenal [to find it],” he adds.

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