4 Apr
2019
This
secretive Endangered songbird has been spotted for the first time in three
years, in the cloud forests of Malaysia – a completely new habitat for this
species. Could this be its formerly unknown wintering grounds?
By
Jessica Law
When
local birdwatcher Long Roslee Ngah photographed a small, pretty brown bird in
the cloud forests of the Genting Highlands in February, he didn’t realise the
importance of what he had discovered. It wasn’t until other birdwatchers and
researchers spotted the photo in a WhatsApp chat group that they realised it
was in fact a Rufous-headed Robin Larvivora ruficeps (Endangered) – an incredibly rare
and secretive migratory bird that has only been sporadically sighted in the
past few years. To this day, very little is known about this species – but
thanks to this sighting, we now know a little more.
The
Rufous-headed Robin is one of the most narrowly-distributed migratory landbirds
in Asia, with its breeding grounds restricted to a tiny area of central China
in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. Fortunately, all three of the locations where
it had been recorded in recent years are protected areas – Jiuzhaigou, Wanglang
and Baihe Nature Reserves, all classed as Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas. Here,
it rubs shoulders with iconic Asian species such as the Giant Panda, Golden
Snub-nosed Monkey and Takin (“Gnu Goat”). However, not much is known about
where it heads to spend its winter.
Until
now. Observations by local birdwatchers and photographers over many weeks have
confirmed that Malaysia’s high-elevation cloud forests are indeed part of the
Rufous-headed Robin’s long sought-after wintering grounds. The only previous
clues came in 1963, when one male bird was mist-netted and banded in Malaysia’s
Cameron Highlands by researchers who then assumed it was an extreme vagrant,
and another brief sighting in the Genting Highlands in 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment