Handbook of Birds of the World volume 12 (tits, babblers, etc.) Review by Frank Lambert, with a summary of current babbler taxonomy.

Late December 2007 to mid-March 2008 Thailand Bird Reports

Yunnan & Sichuan China Birding Report, October 2007, by Dave Sargeant.

Birding in the Proaves Reserves, Colombia, April - July 2007, by Frank Lambert.

Pacific Birding - New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Samoa & the Cook Islands by Dave Sargeant, with maps and photos.

Parque do Zizo, SP, Brazil and Its Birds by Alex Lees & Jeremy Minns

The Solomon Islands Frogmouth is a new genus and species and has been named Rigidipenna inexpectata by Nigel Cleere, who made the discovery while examining study skins following many years of research. [Abstract]. It calls with a whistle, like Batrachostomus and unlike Podargus, and has been believed by birders to be a different species than Marbled Frogmouth Podargus ocellatus, with which it formerly was lumped. (See Jon Horbuckle's Solomon Islands trip report.)

Large-billed Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus orinus rediscovered by Phil Round 120 southwest of Bangkok. See J. Avian Biol. 38: 133-138 (2007). Interview with Phil by Ornithomedia.

The Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation in Cambodia works with the Tmatboey Ibis Project to help birders look for the Giant Ibis Pseudibis gigantean and White-shouldered Ibis Pseudibis davisoni. Details.

Sierra Leone Trip Report by Jon Hornbuckle, December 2006, with Rich Hopf & Frank Lambert.

Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata rediscovered in a remote part of northern Madagascar by Peregrine Fund biologists! Details.

"Caatinga" Woodpecker Celeus obrieni [Photo by Edson Endrigo]. Rediscovered in northeast Brazil on 21 October 2006 during a biological survey before construction of one more section of BR-010, the Belém-Brasília highway. Details with photos of a handheld bird. This species formerly was lumped with Rufous-headed Woodpecker C. spectabilis, a bamboo specialist in Amazonia. Since neither the type locality, in southwest Piauí, nor the site of rediscovery, near Goiatins in northeast Tocatins near the border with Maranhão, is in caatinga, Fabio Olmos has suggested a new common name of Kaempfer's Woodpecker. Emil Kaempfer collected the type specimen in 1926. The new site is about 350 km west of the type locality, which was at Uruçuí, near the Rio Parnaíba.

Possible White-eyed River-Martins Eurochelidon sirintarae observed by Wayne Mcullum in Cambodia in March 2004. See Doug Judell's article about his attempts to investigate the sighting on ThaiBirding.com.

The new Liocichla from Northeast India has now been described as Bugun Liocichla Liocichla bugunorum: A new species of Liocichla (Aves: Timaliidae) from Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India by Ramana Athreya, Indian Birds 2(4):82-93 (2006) with maps (pdf) | Photos and field sketch | Birdlife article: "There are plans to build a highway through Eaglenest, passing through Lama Camp, where most sightings have taken place."

Peckergate: The Ivory-billed Woodpecker hoax. [Sensibly rejected by the ABA Checklist Committee (July/August 2006 issue of Birding).] The Ivory-billed Woodpecker "rediscovery" is a big lie, promoted aggressively by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, and a cast of sideshow characters clinging to the rear of the gravy train. The last confirmed sighting of an Ivory-bill in North America was in 1944, while the last substantial patch of suitable habitat was being cleared by government slave laborers. Despite the complete destruction of Ivory-bill breeding habitat more than 60 years ago, dudes and stringers still routinely misidentify Pileated Woodpeckers as Ivory-bills. Now formerly respected biologists have seized upon one of these "sightings" for publicity and profit -- which makes this episode worse than Bigfoot and more closely analogous to Piltdown Man. The mainstream media have not been fooled so thoroughly by a scientific fraud since the Tasaday Hoax. Despite positive identification of the bird in Cornell's only video as a Pileated Woodpecker, the hoax and the diversion of conservation money for idiotic Ivory-bill searches continues unabated. Details.

Fiji Trip Report by Jeff Skevington and Michael Mathiesen. Highlights included the recently rediscovered Long-legged Warbler Trichocichla (Megalurulus) rufa.

Shade grown coffee fraud. The latest issue of Gunnar Engblom's excellent Birding Peru Newsletter reports that most of the natural, epiphyte-covered shade trees in formerly rustic "shade" coffee plantations in central Peru have been replaced with fast-growing, monoculture shade trees Inga and Albizia. Yield and quality is higher in the monocultures, and consumers of "shade grown coffee" don't know the difference. But the monoculture shade trees have no value for birds such as Cerulean Warbler that occurred in the remnants of native forest.

Socotra, Yemen Trip Report by Dave Sargeant, with maps, photos and GPS waypoints.

The Break-up of the Old World Warblers. Don Roberson has posted a lucid summary of recent DNA studies which completely reconfigure the Sylvioidea. Some interesting tidbits: White-bellied "Yuhina" (now Erpornis) is a corvid most closely related to Vireo; Donacobius is not a wren but a monotypic, relict family related to the Megaluridae; Rockjumpers, Hyliotas & Nicators are isolated in their own clades; Other African warblers including the Rockrunner, crombecs, "Bradypterus" victorini, and Cape Grassbird form a clade; The Stenostirid flycatchers including Culicicapa are closely related to the Paridae and Remizidae; Panurus is not a parrotbill, but the parrotbills are very close to Sylvia; Prinia, Apalis, Neomixis, Hypergerus, Euryptila, and most tailorbirds are Cisticolids, but the Mountain Tailorbird is a Cettid, as are Tesia, Urospena, Tickella, and possible Hylia; Most Bradypterus, the Cincloramphus songlarks, and Locustella belong with the Megalurids.

Ripe for Rediscovery - New Caledonia's Most Wanted. By Ed Parnell, BirdLife International. New expeditions are planned to continue the search for New Caledonia Lorikeet Charmosyna diadema, of which there have been no confirmed reports since 1913.

New species of honeyeater, Berlepsch's Six-wired Bird-of-Paradise Parotia carolae berlepschi, Golden-fronted Bowerbird Amblyornis flavifrons and more found on Foja Mountains expedition, Papua, Indonesia led by Bruce Beehler. The Independent, 7 February 2006.

See it now, since China is preparing to clear the forests of Papua for the 2008 Olympics. Any Chinese who complains about this or any other abuse risks having his or her internal organs cut out for resale while still alive, then being burned alive in the crematorium at the Sujiatun Death Camp.

Study supports split of Caribbean orioles. The "Greater Caribbean Oriole", formerly considered conspecific with the mainland Black-cowled Oriole Icterus prosthemelas, would be split into four species, one critically endangered -- the Bahama Oriole I. northropi, believed to have been extirpated on Abaco with few birds remaining on North and South Andros, where they are threatened by Shiny Cowbird parasitism. Details.

New Jabouilleia Scimitar-Babbler discovered in northern Burma. Naung Mung Scimitar-Babbler J. naungmungensis. Illustrated below Short-tailed Scimitar-Babbler J. danjoui by John Anderton on the cover of the October 2005 Auk. See Rappole et al., Auk 122(4): 1064-1069. An article by Sweet et al. describing another new Jabouilleia from northern Vietnam, along with a genetic analysis of Jabouilleia and Rimator, is in preparation for publication in Forktail.

WorldTwitch 2004 Book Awards

Special WorldTwitch Award - Best Butterfly Book to Date

Gunung Kerinci, Sumatra Trip Report by Dave Sargeant, June 2005. Birds observed included Schneider's Pitta and Salvadori's Pheasant.

Peruvian subspecies of Southern Helmeted Curassow Crax unicornis koepckeae rediscovered in Huánuco. Birdlife International 1 August 2005.

Baja California and western Mexico, January-February 2005, by Dave Sargeant. Includes excellent site maps and a nice photo of Xantus'  Hummingbird.

New Aratinga in the solstitialis (Sun Parakeet) group described from Monte Alegre, PA, Brazil (north bank of the Amazon). Sulphur-breasted Parakeet A. pintoi. Silveira, Thadeo de Lima & Höfling, Auk 122(1):292-305 (2005) (pdf).

White-breasted Thrasher Ramphocinclus brachyurus will be virtually wiped out on St. Lucia by a cricket [the sport] resort funded by the European Investment Bank and surrounding development. BirdLife 22 April 2005. (The Martinique subspecies of this monotypic thrasher is now very rare due to wholesale clearance of dry forest.)

Birding in Sri Lanka - Update by Dave Sargeant

Rusty-throated (Mishmi) Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis badeigularis rediscovered in the Mishmi Hills of NE Assam, India by Ben King & Julian Donahue. The only previous record was a specimen obtained by Dillon Ripley in 1947. Article by Julian Donahue with photo and directions.

Japan Trip Report, May-June 2004, by Dave Sargeant & Panadda Panthong with excellent stakeout for Blakiston's Eagle-Owls that are habituated to people and to electronic flash.

Cambodia, 10-27 February 2004, by Frank Rheindt - Giant Ibis, Mekong Wagtail, Bengal Florican, Manchurian Reed-Warbler, Silver Oriole.

Zambia & Northeast Namibia Birding Trip by Jon Hornbuckle, October 2003.

Rwanda & Uganda Birding Trip by Dave Sargeant & Nigel Moorhouse, June 2003.

Fuerteventura, Canary Islands Birding Trip by Henk Hendriks

Birding the Andaman Islands and Western Ghats of India, by Dave Sargeant.

Sichuan & Yunnan, China Birding, June - July 2003, by Frank Rheindt.

Vietnam Birding, April - June 2003, by Frank Rheindt. Outstanding trip report with detailed directions to many rare and recently described species.

2003 Peru Trip Report by Jon Hornbuckle

Birding Hawaii by Jon Hornbuckle. May 2003 trip for Hawaii's rare birds.

Cameroon Trip Report, March-April 2003, by Ron Hoff.

Cristalino Jungle Lodge and Alta Floresta, MT, Brazil Trip Report by Alex Lees, April - June 2003.

Science & Tech News

BBC

Forests.org

Native Forest Council

New Scientist

The Register

The Inquirer

Wired

Humor

Ted Rall

Tom Tomorrow

Private Eye

Matt

Knife and Packer

Retailers

Sierra Trading Post

Binoculars.com

Eagle Optics

J&R Computer/Music World

REI

Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk

Harry Potter books in foreign languages

84 Spoon-billed Sandpipers  counted in Burma. BirdLife report, 14 February 2008.

Hunting and trapping are out of control on Cyprus, where an estimated 500,000 migratory birds were killed in Autumn 2007. BirdLife report. Hunters were fined only 1,250 Euros for slaughtering 52 near-threatened Red-footed Falcons. BirdLife report.

Chinese Crested Tern population halves in 3 years to 50 birds due to unregulated commercial egg collecting. BirdLife report.

"White-faced" Plover -- an apparent undescribed species of migratory Charadrius plover that winters in Southeast Asia. Malaysia's Mystery Plover by David Bakewell & Peter Kennerley.

Chinese to destroy Central Africa's "most beautiful waterfall" in Ivindo National Park, Gabon. Mongabay report.

One longline vessel off New Zealand drowns 36 albatrosses, including 12 Chatham's Albatrosses Thalassarche eremita and 22 Salvin's Albatrosses Thalassarche salvini. BirdLife report.

Rufous Twistwing Cnipodectes superrufus is described in the July issue of the Auk and illustrated on the cover. Auk 124(3): 762-772. This large tyrannid is a Guadua bamboo specialist that has been found at a number of sites in SE Peru and adjacent Bolivia. The first specimen was collected in 1990, but it was misidentified as Rufous Casiornis. While this paper was underway in 2003, Frank Lambert independently found and videotaped it at Cocha Cashu Biological Station.

Rescue Dud: Hollywood places Screaming Piha in Asia. Rescue Dawn, set in Laos & filmed in Thailand, has a soundtrack of South American bird and insect calls. Herzog's earlier documentary on the same subject, Little Dieter Wants to Fly, is much better.

Powerful Democrat equates owls and bats with rats in support of Appalachian windmill project, owned by a wealthy Hillary Clinton crony, which will be built with no environmental review. Corrupt MD governor prevents state scientists from testifying. Big Green groups silent. Link.

First photos of Bruijn's Brush-Turkey

Photos of Recurved-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii on abcbirds.com. Details on proaves.org.

A carcass of a juvenile Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis was found in Diamantina National Park, formerly Diamantina Lakes, Queensland in November 2006, about 100-200 km southeast of the last confirmed record, near Boulia, QLD, where a dead Night Parrot was found in 1990. Article in the Brisbane Times, 23 June 2007.

Frank Lambert reviews Birds of Northern South America (revised 19 May 2007).

Since early 2007, Zeiss Victory FL binoculars have come with superior LotuTec coatings. The LotuTec versions have different product numbers. See the updated WorldTwitch Optics page.

The Formicivora antwren from Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil has been described and named Sincorá Antwren Formicivora grantsaui. Photo of female | Article in Zootaxa describing species (pdf).

New species of hummingbird (or possibly a subspecies of Black-breasted Puffleg) discovered in southwestern Colombia - Gorgeted Puffleg Eriocnemis isabellae. Details & photo by Luis Mazeriego.

Greg Homel has filmed the courtship display of two male Marvelous Spatuletails Loddigesia mirabilis, available online here.

New website: Birding Mongolia by Axel Bräunlich.

On 27 March 2007, Nick Brickle reported on the OrientalBirding Yahoo! group that armed with recordings of the captive Sumatran Ground-Cuckoo Carpococcyx viridis, his party saw a pair of wild birds and heard another in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. They were able to get recordings of the wild birds and the calls are "a long way removed from Bornean Ground-Cuckoo". Photos of the captive bird are available on the Oriental Bird Club Image Database.

Long-whiskered Owlet Xenoglaux loweryi seen and tape recorded at Abra Patricia, San Martín, Peru. Details.

The Avifauna of Flores (Lesser Sunda Islands) by G.F. Mees (2006). Available free online (262 pages pdf).

Correction: What WWF Australia believed to be a "mysterious carnivore" photographed in Kalimantan,  Borneo, Indonesia probably is the flying squirrel Aeromys thomasi. Erik Meijaard, Andrew C. Kitchener & Chris Smeenk. 'New Bornean carnivore' is most likely a little known flying squirrel. Mammal Rev. 36(4): 318-324 (2006). (Includes fine color illustrations based on the camera trap photos.)

Another mammal mistake -- genetic analysis of Laonastes aenigmamus, the new small mammal discovered in Laos, indicates that it is not closely related to the guinea pigs, as originally claimed, but that it is most closely related to the gundis, from which its ancestors diverged about 44 million years ago. Article with photo.

Grenada Dove in trouble: Grenada is planning to sell Mount Hartmann National Park to Four Seasons for a mega-resort with golf course and marina that would destroy about half of the remaining habitat for the endangered endemic. Meanwhile, Bill Gates has made a $3.7 billion bid to take Four Seasons private. See Protect the Grenada Dove.

The Ivory Gull population crash in the Canadian Arctic may be due to high levels of mercury. CBC, 12 February 2007. But corrupt US officials still refuse to crack down on dirty, coal-fired power plants that dump mercury into the atmosphere.

The excellent inaugural issue of Neotropical Birding includes "Lost and found: a gap analysis for the Neotropical avifauna" by Joseph A. Tobias, Stuart H.M. Butchart & Nigel Collar, Neotropical Birding 1:3-22 (2006) (pdf). Among the highlights is the discovery by Oscar Laverde that Recurve-billed Bushbird Clytoctantes alixii is fairly common along a 2-km stretch of road between 1600m and 1750m at Ocaña, dpto. Norte de Santander, Colombia, in mature secondary growth with a strong bamboo component. Oscar generously donated recordings to Xeno Canto, the online source of Neotropical bird songs. The little-known species also was found in the Sierra de Perijá, Venezuela, in April 2004 by Chris Sharpe. (A correspondent recently dipped at the Colombia locality, which has been the site of heavy recent collecting by museum ornithologists, reportedly including 5 taken by Gary Stiles, despite large series of old museum specimens. Hopefully the ornithologists didn't get them all, as happened to the Three-toed Jacamars at Fazenda Montes Claros, Brazil.)

Dennis Yong's Malaysia Big Bird Year update. Dennis reportedly wound up with 582 species, including Pygmy White-eye Oculocincta squamifrons at Poring Hot Springs on 22 August. (xls checklist - not updated since 11 Nov.) For those who have been skipping Pasoh, which has been losing birds since the last corridor to other forest was deforested for more palm oil (biodiesel), note that Dennis recently had Malayan Peacock-Pheasant, Barred Eagle-owl and White-necked Babbler at Pasoh. Dennis Yong: A Naturalists' Naturalist. By Su Mei Toh, Wild Asia.

I highly recommend the article by Bill Clark et al. in Birding 38(6):66-74 (Nov/Dec 2006) entitled "Field Identification of the Solitary Eagle". Both Common and Great Black Hawks are often misidentified as Solitary Eagle, a rare bird of hill country above 700m. Moreover, at least two commercial bird song sets misattribute the calls of Great Black Hawk to Solitary Eagle. This well-illustrated article for the first time sets forth the critical field marks. Solitary Eagle calls may be found on Tom Schulenberg's Voices of Andean Birds vol. 2.

Stunning photo by Daniel Torres of one of three (!) Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos Neomorphus geoffroyi attending an antswarm near the Bocaracá Trail at the Rain Forest Aerial Tram, Costa Rica on 29 March 2006. Gone Birding Newsletter, v7, n3 & v7,n2. The birds continued to be seen for a few days and at one point were visible from the gift shop! Another was seen by John Keep at Albergue Heliconias in February 2006 (trip report). He only learned of the site a week before departing from the WorldTwitch Costa Rica Natural History Resource Guide.

Kinglet Calyptura C. cristata observed at Folha Seca near Ubatuba, SP, Brazil, 4 March 2006, with a mixed flock by Dr. Martin Schaefer! Subsequently, a sighting by Ladd Hockey in the Ubatuba Experimental Station on 27 March 1997 was posted to the Neoorn-l by Jeremy Minns. Details.

Black-capped Piprites Piprites pileatus rediscovered in Argentina in the newly demarcated Parque Provincial "Caá Yarí" in Missiones. Article and photo. The species is otherwise known to occur only at a few montane sites in SE Brazil.

Eduardo Veado, former director of the Caratinga Reserve at Fazenda Montes Claros (now RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala), Ipanema, MG, Brazil, an important site for endemic birds and mammals, and his wife were killed on 5 October by a hit-and-run driver near Ipanema. He had received death threats for denouncing illegal logging in the vicinity. (AP Article).

Stunning handheld photos of Banded Ground-Cuckoo Neomorphus radiolosus are online on the International Research Training Center - Ecuador website. Scientists tracked a bird for nearly a year using radio telemetry, and it led them to the first confirmed nest. It occupied a home range of five square kilometers with a marked preference for undisturbed habitat.

Sumatran Ground-Cuckoo Carpococcyx viridis photographed by camera trap near G. Kerinchi. BirdLife report, 6 July 2006.

Pink-headed Blank, 18 July 2006: BirdLife's latest expedition to northern Burma failed to find Pink-headed Duck. Jonathan Eames said: "If the Pink-headed Duck was resident in Kachin, we surely would have found it by now. Perhaps it is indeed extinct or is only a visitor to the region."

Manipur Bush-Quail Perdicula manipurensis reported from Manas National Park, Assam, India. BBC, 28 June 2006.

US Population Nearing 300 Million thanks to mass immigration of prolific breeders. Bogus Big Green groups still say "Bring 'em in". NOW is the time to look for the many declining North American birds, as the situation is going to get much worse very quickly.

India finally bans vulture death drug. Probably too late to save the Critically Endangered Slender-billed, Indian and White-rumped Vultures, which have declined quicker than any other wild birds, including the Dodo.

Top 2004 compensation for a "Big Green" group executive was "only" $704,796 (NRDC President). The highest in recent years was the whopping $852,749 paid by the WCS in 1999-2000 to a new CEO who was on the job for only six months before they quietly replaced him. More environmental group salary information -- dug out by Animal People. (It's more difficult to uncover than Enron financials.)

Cone-billed Tanager Conothraupis mesoleuca rediscovered in PN das Emas, Brazil! This little-known bird was found and taped by Braulio Carlos in 2003 and has been seen subsequently by other birders. There is a photo by Dante Buzzetti on ao.com.br.

Harpy Eagle nest at Alta Floresta, MT, Brazil. Alex Lees reports that there is an active Harpy Eagle nest in the forest fragment in the town of Alta Floresta, with a circa one-year-old dependent juvenile. As of late October 2005, both adults and the juvenile were still being seen daily. There is another active Harpy Eagle nest stakeout at Estação Veracruz, RPPN da Veracel Celulose, near Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil.

New marsh antwren discovered near the city of São Paulo! It's clearly very similar to the Paraná Marsh Antwren Formicivora (Stymphalornis) acutirostris, which was discovered in Typha marshes along the Paraná coast about 10 years ago and has since been observed farther south in Santa Catarina. The new bird was found near Biritiba-Mirim and subsequently observed near Moji das Cruzes, towns which are about 20 km apart east of SP along the road to Ubatuba. (Article from Jornal Hoje with photo, 5 May 2005 / USP press release / IBAMA press release.)

Peninsular Malaysia & Sabah, July-September 2003, by Frank Rheindt - Bulwer's Pheasant at Kinabalu Park HQ!

Flock of more than 50 Short-tailed Albatrosses off Alaska. Photo by Rob Suryan on TheBirdGuide.

Birds Korea is now online. They are offering free memberships to birders around the world.

There's good and bad news for anyone who has made the arduous trip to Enganno Island on an Indonesian fishing boat for Chestnut-capped Thrush and the endemic scops owl and white-eye. The good news: Nigel Collar has split Enganno birds into a new species, Enganno Thrush Zoothera leucolaema. The bad news: you will have to find Chestnut-capped Thrush Z. interpres elsewhere, and nowhere is it as common and conspicuous as the thrush on Enganno (at least prior to forthcoming deforestation). N.J. Collar, Species limits in some Indonesian thrushes. Forktail 20 (2004): 71-87. (Elevates five subspecies to species level, including forms of Red-backed Thrush found on Peleng and Talibu, and demotes two species to subspecies.)

Another "rare" bird becomes  easy to find: Black-chested Tyrant Taeniotriccus andrei tape recorded for the first time at Carajás, PA, Brazil by Kevin Zimmer and Andrew Whittaker, and 10 territories located. Details.

New flightless wood rail closely related to Okinawa Rail discovered on Calayan, northern Philippines. Calayan Rail Gallirallus calayaensis.

Selva Cacique Cacicus koepckeae rediscovered in vicinity of the Machiguenga Center, Timpía, Cusco, Peru, and other sites in SE Peru. N.G. Gerhart, Wilson Bull. 116(1)[2004]: 74-82.

Possible sighting of the critically endangered Silvery Pigeon, Columba argentina, with Pied Imperial Pigeons on Pulau Talang Besar (Talang Talang Islands), southwest Sarawak. There have been no confirmed records since 1931. BirdingASIA 1 (2004):55-56.

Substantial population of Gurney's Pittas found in Burma.

Victorious birds sing triumph over losers. New Scientist, 10 February 2004. Tropical Boubous in Côte d'Ivoire that successfully defended their territory from a simulated confrontation sang a distinctive "victory duet" from a high perch 30 minutes after playback stopped.

Substantial population of Red Siskins discovered in the Rupununi Savanna, Guyana.

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