From BirdLife:
Indian warbler “lost” for 139 years makes spectacular return—in Thailand and the UKSee also here.07-03-2007
Ornithologists across the world are celebrating with the news that a wetland bird that has eluded scientists ever since its discovery in India in 1867 has been refound. Twice.
The Large-billed Reed-warbler is the world’s least known bird.
A single bird was collected in the Sutlej Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, in 1867, but many had questioned whether it was indeed represented a true species and wasn’t just an aberrant individual of a common species.
But on 27 March 2006, ornithologist Philip Round, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, Mahidol University, was bird ringing (banding) at a wastewater treatment centre (the royally initiated Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project) near Bangkok, Thailand.
“Although reed-warblers are generally drab and look very similar, one of the birds I caught that morning struck me as very odd, something about it didn’t quite add up; it had a long beak and short wings,” said Round.
“Then, it dawned on me—I was probably holding a Large-billed Reed-warbler. I was dumbstruck, it felt as if I was holding a living dodo.”
“I knew it was essential to get cast-iron proof of its identity. I took many photographs, and carefully collected two feathers for DNA analysis, so as not to harm the bird.” …
“This remarkable discovery gives Indian ornithologists an added incentive to continue our search for the Large-billed Reed-warbler in India,” said Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society.
“Like the discovery of Bugun Liocichla last year in Arunachal Pradesh, it shows us just how much we still have to learn about our remarkable avifauna.” …
But, in a further twist to this remarkable tale, six months after the rediscovery, another Large-billed Reed-warbler specimen was discovered in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring, in a drawer of Blyth’s Reed-warblers (Acrocephalus dumetorum) collected in India during the 19th Century.
Once again, Professor Staffan Bensch confirmed the identification using DNA.
“Finding one Large-billed Reed-warbler after 139 years was remarkable, finding a second—right under ornithologists’ noses for that length of time—is nothing short of a miracle,” said Butchart.
The second specimen is from a different part of India and is bound to fuel debate as to the whereabouts of more Large-billed Reed-warblers.
And here.
Birdwatching in India: here.
Large-billed Reed-warbler (not so) new to Afghanistan and Kazakhstan - According to a recent paper in the Journal of Avian Biology by Svensson et al. Large-billed Reed-warbler Acrocephalus orinus can be added to the bird lists of Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, after finding 10 new specimens in museum collections. The Kazakhstan specimen was collected by N. Zarudny on 18 August 1900 in the south-east of the country. The four Afghan specimens were collected by W. N. Koelz in north-east Afghanistan in July 1937. Until recently Large-billed Reed-warbler was known only from one specimen, collected in the Sutlej Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India in November 1867. In March 2006 one was trapped at Laem Phak Bia, Phatchaburi Province, south-west Thailand.
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/04/news_byte_7.html
Comment by Administrator — April 8, 2009 @ 1:46 pm