Megan ByrneNew Birds Found in India and Columbia
October 17th 2006 04:17
Nature is often secretive about its beauty, deciding when the time is right for a new display. Recently, we were allowed to see two new and beautiful birds.
In the hills of India's Eagleness Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, a state on the India-China border, Ramana Athreya, has found the first new bird species to be discovered in that country in over 50 years. Athreyna, an amateur bird-watcher, first spotted the bird in 1995.
Named for the Bugun, who live on the edge of the santuary, the eight inch long Bugun liocichla is being described as a type of babbler, a diverse family of birds that usually live in tropical forests.
The only bird that looks remotely like it is the Emei Shan liocichla, which is known to exist in only a few mountains in central China, over 620 miles from Eaglenest. Comparisons of the two species showed key differences in their calls and markings, and confirmed that the Bugun liocichla is new to science.
The new species is a tiny population of only 14 known individual birds, six of those breed.
Athreya's findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Indian Birds.
In a Columbian cloud forest, in a remote part of the eastern Andes known as the Serrania de los Yariguies, researchers Thomas Donegan and Blanca Huertas discovered a fist-size bird they named the Yariguies brush finch. The bird, as well as the Yariguies region itself, was named for an indigenous fifteenth century tribe
The finch was first sighted in 2004 and, according to the researchers, its lack of white marking on its wings, coupled with its solid black back, diffrentiates it from other known brish finches
In February, Donegan and Huertas submitted their findings in a paper to the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club.
In the hills of India's Eagleness Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, a state on the India-China border, Ramana Athreya, has found the first new bird species to be discovered in that country in over 50 years. Athreyna, an amateur bird-watcher, first spotted the bird in 1995.
Bugun liocichla
The only bird that looks remotely like it is the Emei Shan liocichla, which is known to exist in only a few mountains in central China, over 620 miles from Eaglenest. Comparisons of the two species showed key differences in their calls and markings, and confirmed that the Bugun liocichla is new to science.
The new species is a tiny population of only 14 known individual birds, six of those breed.
Athreya's findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Indian Birds.
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In a Columbian cloud forest, in a remote part of the eastern Andes known as the Serrania de los Yariguies, researchers Thomas Donegan and Blanca Huertas discovered a fist-size bird they named the Yariguies brush finch. The bird, as well as the Yariguies region itself, was named for an indigenous fifteenth century tribe
The finch was first sighted in 2004 and, according to the researchers, its lack of white marking on its wings, coupled with its solid black back, diffrentiates it from other known brish finches
Yariguies brush finch
In February, Donegan and Huertas submitted their findings in a paper to the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club.
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