NEW SPECIES of bird described from Laos

A new species of bulbul—a type of songbird from Africa and Asia—has been discovered in a remote Laotian forest. As Andrew Revkin notes, “Despite the ever-spreading imprint of humanity on this small planet, scientists keep discovering new species, even among relatively conspicuous classes of vertebrates like mammals and birds.”

Compared to discoveries of invertebrates or smaller vertebrates such as amphibians and reptiles, discoveries of new bird and mammal species are relatively uncommon. The rule of thumb seems to be; new discoveries of large animals are very rare. Likewise, remote and unexplored areas yield more new species.

However, this isn’t always the case. A new species of salamander was recently discovered in northern Georgia, and a new species of ghost slug was described from a Cardiff garden (note these are new discoveries of small animals, so it’s doubtful that new species of large mammals remain undiscovered in the United States).

The largest new animals discovered include various species of primates, muntjac, and a new species of bovine that represents a new genus as well. From CBC.ca:

The bare-faced bulbul is a thrush-sized, olive green bird with a light-coloured breast and a bald, pink face. It lives in the trees of a sparse forest among limestone mountains called karsts in Laos.

It is described in the 2009 issue of Forktail, the journal of the U.K.-based Oriental Bird Club, by the scientists who discovered it, Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the Iain Woxvold of the University of Melbourne.

Bulbuls are a family of about 130 species of songbirds found in Asia, and the bare-faced bulbul is the first new one in more than a century, the society reported.

. . .

However, in the recent expedition, similar birds were seen in two limestone karst areas quite far from one another, Clyne said, adding that it’s not clear how common the birds are.

The research observed pairs of birds eating berries and flitting among the trees. They took photographs, recorded the birds’ calls, and captured some and took blood samples, they reported. A couple of specimens were brought back to the Natural History Museum in Tring, U.K., and the Australian National Wildlife Collection in Canberra, Australia, but Clyne did not know if they are on display.

Over the past decade, Timmins had also found a new species of rodent and a striped rabbit in the same area, the release said.