New Bird Species Confirmed in Indonesia, 15 Years After First Sighting
The Sulawesi streaked flycatcher was first spotted by bird-watchers in 1997.
An Indonesian bird first observed 15 years ago is a species previously unknown to science, a new study confirms.
An elusive bird, spotted on the island of Sulawesi (map) in 1997, now has an official name: the Sulawesi streaked flycatcher (Muscicapa sodhii).
Ben King, a bird-watching guide, and his clients were the first to notice the bird, which had a distinctive streaked throat and looked smaller than a related species, the gray-streaked flycatcher (M. griseisticta). (See photo: "New Bird Found in Indonesia.")
Several years later, that sighting inspired bird expert Frank Rheindt of the National University of Singapore and colleagues to travel to Sulawesi in 2011 and 2012 to search for the enigmatic animal.
But the bird's unassuming,
