As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 13 November 2016

Three new bird species discovered in Africa


Date: November 9, 2016
Source: Texas A&M AgriLife

A Texas A&M University team has discovered three never before documented bird species, and there could well be more, the team's leader said.

Dr. Gary Voelker, professor and curator of birds in the department of wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, headed the recent discovery of a trio of similar African birds living in close proximity, but that are different species which share no common genes.

Voelker was lead author on an article published recently in the scientific journal Systematics and Biodiversity discussing that discovery.

"The discovery of these three new species is a good example of the amount of potentially hidden diversity living in Afrotropical forests," Voelker said. "Our evidence runs directly counter to the belief of earlier research that said Afrotropical forests are static places where little evolutionary diversification has occurred.

"The areas were referred to as 'museums' of diversity, meaning they believed because many of the birds look similar across their ranges, then they probably were the same species. That's a point we are finding not to be true."

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