Photograph helps identify a West African bird not seen in 13 years.
Researchers with the International Bird Conservation Partnership photographed a Ghana cuckooshrike in Côte d'Ivoire's Taï National Park, the first verified sighting of the species in 13 years, Mongabay reports.
Researchers have photographed a Ghana cuckooshrike (Lobotos lobatus) in Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire, a species with no verified sighting for 13 years, according to a Mongabay report by John Cannon.
Stephanie Bartlett, a field research fellow with the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), took the photograph while Paulo Ditzel, also an IBCP research fellow, called out the bird's movements. Bartlett told Mongabay she captured the identifying image before she had actually seen the bird. The birds are wary, she said, so a camera often serves as the tool for identification. The photo shows a small bird with an orange body and black and yellow wings. It followed months of fieldwork and bird surveys supported by a team of West African researchers, whom Ditzel described as vital to the project.
The species was last documented in 2013 in Ghana's Atewa Forest. Ornithologists believe its range covers parts of West Africa from Guinea to Ghana, within the Upper Guinean Rainforest. Logging and agriculture have reduced its likely habitat to isolated patches of forest across that range.
The cuckooshrike was listed by the Search for Lost Birds (SLB), a platform that tracks bird species not scientifically documented in more than a decade. Ditzel and his colleagues suspected it might still live in Taï. Without verified sightings, little was known about its population or conservation status. It could have been extinct, extremely rare or simply hard to see in the forest canopy. John Mittermeier of the American Bird Conservancy, who directs SLB, explained why that matters: "You can’t really make an effective conservation plan for a species that nobody’s seen in 10 years."
Researchers say the find underscores the importance of protecting Taï, a biodiversity hotspot that faces threats from artisanal gold mining and illegal hunting. Saint Guillaume Odoukpe, an ornithologist and assistant professor at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny who organized and accompanied the IBCP expedition, said: "I think there is plenty more to discover in this forest." The report does not give an estimate of how many of the birds remain.
At a Glance
- The Ghana cuckooshrike had gone 13 years without a verified sighting before the photograph in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire.
- The species was last documented in 2013 in Ghana's Atewa Forest.
- Stephanie Bartlett of the International Bird Conservation Partnership took the photo while Paulo Ditzel tracked the bird's movements.
- The bird was listed on the Search for Lost Birds platform, which tracks species undocumented for more than a decade.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.