A distinctive song helped researchers find a new, elusive bird species
Source: Washington Post
By Abby Ohlheiser
An elusive bird with a tendency to hide among the grassy vegetation of central China's mountainous terrain was finally confirmed to be an entirely new species, thanks to its distinctive song.
Meet the Sichuan Bush Warbler, which made its debut in a paper published in Avian Research on Friday. Its scientific name is Locustella chengi, after the late Chinese ornithologist Cheng Tso-hsin.
The Sichuan Bush Warbler looks a lot like another species, the Russet Bush Warbler, and both birds live more or less in the same places.
But the "exceedingly secretive" Sichuan Bush Warbler sounds quite different from its neighbor, a Michigan State University biologist who co-authored the paper said in a statement. "Its distinctive song ... consists of a low-pitched drawn-out buzz, followed by a shorter click, repeated in series," Pamela Rasmussen said.
FULL story at link. X post in Birder You can listen to that song here, via the Avian Vocalizations Center: http://avocet.zoology.msu.edu/recordings/18335
Locustella chengi. (Per Alstrom/Michigan State University)
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/05/01/a-distinctive-song-helped-researchers-find-a-new-elusive-bird-species/
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