New bird discovered in Danum Valley, Borneo
A new bird was discovered at the walkway of Borneo Rainforest Lodge adjacent Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysia. In June two employees with a tour company named Field Guide came upon a bird species entirely unknown to science.
While walking along the canopy walkway, Richard Webster discovered a bird he didn’t recognize feeding on mistletoe berries. He took photos of the individual and later shared them with Dr. David Edwards, an ornithologist from Leeds University who has been studying birds in the area for three years. After checking with several museums, they realized that no one had ever recorded such a bird.
Over the next few days Webster, Edwards, and Rose Ann Rowlett found two more individuals of the unknown bird and listened to one singing. Since then there have been no more sightings of the species.
Borneo has lost nearly half of its forests over the last fifty years due primarily to logging and clearance for oil palm plantations. Timber was extracted to make lawn furniture, chopsticks, and paper pulp. In more recent decades, oil palm plantations—which are unsuitable habitat for the majority of Borneo’s species—has overrun the island.
The discovery has been published in the latest issue of the Oriental Bird Club’s magazine, BirdingASIA. The species, known only as the ’spectacled flowerpecker, has not yet received a scientific name.
For further information: David P. Edwards, Richard E. Webster, Rose Ann Rowlett. ‘Spectacled Flowerpecker’: a species new to science discovered in Borneo?. BirdingASIA 12 (2009): 38–41.