This morning’s headline news was the discovery of the breeding site for a critically-endangered species, the Large billed Reed Warbler. See the article reprinted from Yahoo! News by Reuters.
This find is a great boon for ornithologists who have only recently rediscovered this specimen after a 120 year period of silence. No doubt Dr. Phil Round, the man who trapped this bird in his working plots in Laem Pak Bia back in 2006 is overjoyed at this announcement. (I doubt he is packing his bags for a trip to Afghanistan, but who know?) Perhaps this will open the door for more birders to visit this remote and volatile region and may help aid in the discovery of other “lost” species in the future.
Reading this article gives me hope that one day, another of Thailand’s “lost” specimen will also be rediscovered in a remote area of a foreign country. The White Eyed River martin has been “lost” to science for many decades now. God forbid we should have to wait 120 years before we see it again, but perhaps it is hiding out in some remote location in China, perchance? There is credence that such a bird may have once been spotted there as various pieces of artwork have surfaced which portray a bird with striking similarities.
All of this is pure speculation but when something as good as this happens, one can only dream that one day, better things will come to pass.
“World’s least known bird” found breeding in Afghanistan
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Researchers have found in Afghanistan the first known breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler, which was dubbed in 2007 as “the world’s least known bird species.”
Researchers for the Wildlife Conservation Society and Sweden’s Gothenburg University said they had found the breeding area in the remote and rugged Wakhan Corridor of north-eastern Afghanistan that has escaped the worst effects of war.
They used field observations, museum specimens, DNA sequencing, and the first known audio recording of the species to find the birds and verified the discovery by capturing and releasing almost 20 birds, the largest number ever recorded.
A preliminary paper on the finding appears in BirdingASIA, describing the discovery in Afghanistan as “a watershed moment” in the study of this bird.
The first specimen of the large-billed reed warbler was discovered in India in 1867 but the second find was not until 2006 in Thailand.
“Practically nothing is known about this species, so this discovery of the breeding area represents a flood of new information on the large-billed reed warbler,” said Colin Poole of WCS’s Asia Program, in a statement.
“This new knowledge of the bird also indicates that the Wakhan Corridor still holds biological secrets and is critically important for future conservation efforts in Afghanistan.”
The find came after Robert Timmins from the WCS was conducting a survey of bird communities in the area.
The Wakhan Corridor has escaped the worst effects of the long years of war suffered elsewhere in Afghanistan since the December 1979 invasion by the Soviet Union. The corridor, populated primarily by Wakhi farmers and yurt-dwelling Kyrghyz herders, is also home to snow leopards and wild Marco Polo sheep.
Timmins heard a distinctive song coming from a small, olive-brown bird with a long bill which he taped and later discovered to be a large-billed reed warbler.
The following summer WCS researchers returned to the same area and used a recording of the song to bring out others and catch almost 20 birds for examination.
The WCS said it is currently the only organization conducting scientific conservation studies in Afghanistan, the first such efforts in over 30 years, and it has contributed to a number of conservation initiatives in tandem with the Afghan government.
It helped produce Afghanistan’s first list of protected species, an action that has led to a ban on hunting snow leopards, wolves, brown bears, and other species.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
