Tibetan mountain finch rediscovered after 80 years
3 November BBC
It has been missing for 80 years but Sillem's Mountain Finch has now
been rediscovered on the Tibetan plateau by a trekker who was too ill to
leave camp. The mountain finch has been an enigma ever since its
discovery in 1929, not least because it wasn't identified until 1992.
Two specimens of the sparrow-sized grey and white bird with a russet
head were collected by Dutch ornithologist Jerome Alexander Sillem on an
expedition to the Karakoram mountain range in 1929. Nowadays this is the
disputed border region of China, India and Pakistan and a no-go area for
birders. The specimens were labelled as a race of Brandt's Mountain
Finch (Leucosticte brandti) and consigned to a drawer in the Amsterdam
Zoological Museum. And there they remained until 1992 when a modern-day
Dutch ornithologist, Kees Roselaar, opened the drawer and realised the
two specimens were a distinctive species in their own right. And he
named the new species Leucosticte sillemi - after the original finder.
But then the trail went cold until June this year when French nature
photographer Yann Muzika was trekking in the Yenigou valley of Qinghai
province in China.
However, he contracted food poisoning on the eve of departure and was
soon confined to camp. Yann takes up the story: "After the second day, I
decided to take a day break and explore the surroundings as much as my
condition would allow. "It was a trek, not a birdwatching trip, but I
was nevertheless carrying a camera and a 400mm lens, just in case.
"I came across a flock of Tibetan Rosefinches (Carpodacus
roborowskii) and with them there was a single bird that I did not know,
resembling a Brandt's Mountain Finch but with a rufous head instead of
dark brown. I took one picture before the bird flew away. "On my return
home, I just downloaded the pictures and left them for a few weeks. I
still couldn't identify the finch but in the Birds of China field guide
there was a brief description of Sillem's Mountain Finch that seemed to
match pretty well... but then we were talking of a bird that had not
been seen since 1929. " As I was reaching the limits of my expertise on
birds, I sent the picture and others taken during the trek to Krys
Kazmierczak who manages the Oriental Bird Images database for the
Oriental Bird Club."
|