Nonggang babbler

NEW BIRD SPECIES FOUND

Ornithologists in China have found a new species of the fist-sized babbler bird, a dark brown bird with white specks on its chest. They initially found it in 2005 and have since declared it an undescribed species. It is named Nonggang babbler or Stachyris nonggangensis referring to the Chinese region where it was found. A formal description was published last year in the Auk, which is the journal of the Virginia-based American Ornithologists’ Union.

This bird was also found in the southwestern China’s Guangxi in December 2008.

This bird resembles a wren-babbler as it prefers running to flying and spends most of its time on the ground. About 100 numbers of this species have been identified so far in the natural reserves of southwestern China. Ornithologists are looking for these birds in the northern Vietnam where similar habitat exists.

Some more new species of birds are also expected to be found in China.

A WARNING! The fragility of the karst ecosystem an its destruction by man are the great threats to the bird’s existence.

Source: Times of India February 3, 2009