Olive-backed Forest Robin
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Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Aug 20, 2008 |
The National Zoo’s Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program in Gabon studies species diversity as part of an attempt to bring resource development and extraction more in line with environmental responsibility. A group of scientists including Brian Schmidt, a research ornithologist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, was investigating species diversity in the Gamba Complex when they discovered a new species of forest robin.
Seven years later, after comparing the bird with the four other known forest robin species and subjecting samples to DNA analysis, they have published a report of their find confirming a new species. The Olive-backed Forest Robin (Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus) is small but brightly coloured, with the males in particular having a bright orange throat and breast. It inhabits lowland forest where there is a lot of undergrowth. The bird forages on or near the ground and is more often heard than seen.
Intriguingly, the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris holds a specimen of this species that was collected in 1953. It’s a juvenile, misidentified at the time as Stiphrornis xanthogaster, another forest robin species that does occur in Gabon.
The Report by Schmidt and Colleagues:
“A new species of African Forest Robin from Gabon (Passeriformes: Muscicapidae: Stiphrornis).” Schmidt, Brian K., Jeffrey T. Foster, George R. Angehr, et al. Zootaxa 1850: 27–42 (2008)
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