Black-browed babbler: Watch first-footage of long-lost bird

The black-browed babbler had been lacking for 172 years earlier than its surprising rediscovery final yr – now we’ve got our first footage of the hen within the wild

By Chen Ly

The enigmatic black-browed babbler has been studied within the wild for the primary time following its reappearance after a 172-year absence.

No Asian hen has been lacking for so long as the black-browed babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata) was earlier than its rediscovery in 2020. Following the surprising first sighting, Panji Gusti Akbar from Birdpacker, a birdwatching group in Indonesia, and his colleagues set out in September 2021 to discover the enigmatic hen’s habitat within the limestone hills of Kotabaru Regency, in Indonesian Borneo.

The workforce noticed a pair of babblers in dense shrubbery close to the aspect of the cliffs. Akbar famous that the birds moved very quietly and discreetly, which would be the motive they had been hidden from us for thus lengthy. As soon as the birds had been shut sufficient, the workforce captured the primary photographs and movies of the birds of their pure habitat.

The babbler could be recognized by a distinguished invoice, gray and brown feathers, and a particular black eyestripe. Earlier than its rediscovery, our solely proof of the hen’s existence got here within the type of a single stuffed specimen and a lot of pure historical past accounts courting again to the mid-Nineteenth century.

Akbar mentioned in a press release: “It was a panoramic second to lastly see this species within the wild, as most of its pure historical past is completely unknown, so that each single behaviour we noticed could be new to science.”

Paul Insua Cao, chair of the Oriental Hen Membership’s conservation committee, mentioned in a press release that the rediscovery spotlights the biodiversity disaster taking place all over the world. The black-browed babbler would most likely have turn out to be extinct had it not been for its rediscovery, as we will now begin trying to shield its habitat, mentioned Cao.

Whereas these sightings are thrilling, little is understood concerning the hen’s ecology, its inhabitants measurement or geographical distribution. Akbar and his workforce are at present trying to find extra black-browed babbler sightings to find out this data. They hope it will assist decide the hen’s conservation standing, enabling related authorities to guard the species.