New bird found in Indonesia
2008-03-16 12:08
Washington - A small greenish bird that
has been playing hide-and-seek with ornithologists on a remote
Indonesian island since 1996 was declared a newly discovered
species on Friday and promptly recommended for endangered lists.
The new species is called the Togian white-eye, or Zosterops somadikartai.
It was first spotted by Mochamad Indrawan of the University of
Indonesia and his colleague Sunarto, who like many Indonesians
uses one name.
"We observed the species in the field from 1997 to 2003,"
Indrawan said in a statement.
Dr Pamela Rasmussen, a taxonomist at Michigan State
University, completed the identification, reported in the March
edition of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.
The researchers had to get one of the birds for examination
and formal classification.
Togian white-eyes are small, greenish-colored and have
conspicuous white eye-rings.
Its nearest relatives have a band of white feathers around
their eyes but this energetic little bird, which travels in
small groups, is less showy, the researchers said.
The new Togian white-eye has been seen only near the coasts
of three small islands of the Togian Islands in central
Sulawesi. Rasmussen said it likely falls into the International
Union for Conservation of Nature's category of endangered.
"This finding of the bird is only the beginning given the vast
opportunities with Indonesian landscapes and seascapes of endemic
flora and fauna," Indrawan said.
"What this discovery highlights is that in some parts of
the world there are still virtually unexplored islands where
few ornithologists have worked," Rasmussen said. "The world
still holds avian surprises for us."
Indonesia has 1 600 of the known 10 000 bird species.
- Reuters