A bird that was believed to be extinct for almost 200 years appears in Borneo

A bird that was believed to be extinct for almost 200 years appears in Borneo

A bird has been unexpectedly rediscovered in Borneo 172 years after its only description, BirdLife International reports . Specifically, it is two inhabitants of the South Kalimantan province of Indonesia who have found it.

This is tordina browed .

The greatest enigma of Indonesian ornithology

Black-browed moth was described by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. His description was based on a specimen collected sometime in the 1840s by the German geologist and naturalist Carl ALM Schwaner, during his expeditions to the East Indies.

Black Browed Babbler

Since then, no other specimens or sightings have been reported. Up to now. As Panji Gusti Akbar , lead author of a study describing details of the rediscovery, explains:

We also know what the black-browed stump actually looks like – the bird photographed now showed several differences from the only known specimen, specifically the color of the iris, bill, and leg. These three parts of a bird’s body are known to lose their tint and are often artificially colored during the taxidermy process. The discovery also confirms that this species continues to exist despite massive deforestation and habitat conversion in this little-known part of Borneo. Therefore, there is a very high possibility that it will be seriously threatened by habitat loss.