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New bird species discovered in Indonesia
mongabay.com
March 14, 2008




A previously unknown species of bird has been discovered near a remote archipelago in Indonesia, reported a taxonomist writing in the March edition of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

Artist's rendering of the Togian white-eye. Courtesy of Agus Prijono

The small greenish bird called the Togian white-eye (Zosterops somadikartai) was first spotted in 1996 by Mochamad Indrawan of the University of Indonesia and his colleague Sunarto near the coast of the Togian Islands off central Sulawesi in Indonesia. Dr. Pamela Rasmussen, a taxonomist at Michigan State University, formally described the species, which will likely qualify as endangered according to IUCN Red List criteria.

"What this discovery highlights is that in some parts of the world there are still virtually unexplored islands where few ornithologists have worked," Rasmussen was quoted as saying by Reuters. "The world still holds avian surprises for us."