New Bird Discovered in Philippines Described as Ventriloquist Bird
Posted on September 11, 2013
A new bird has been discovered in the Philippines by Pete Hosner, a Kentucky University (KU) graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology. It is a ground-dwelling forest bird that lives on Luzon Island of the Philippine archipelago. The bird, named the Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler, is being described as a "ventriloquist bird." Hosner says it is almost impossible to locate the source of the voice of the ventriloquial bird.
Hosner says, "The ground-warblers are very unique birds. They're only known from the northern Philippines, and they have no close relatives. As the name suggests, they're ground-walking songbirds - rotund, with strong legs and weak wings - and it appears that they can barely fly. They tend to inhabit dense forest understory, where they feed on insects. Their song is extremely high in pitch, and ventriloquial - it's almost impossible to locate the source of the sound in the forest - they always sound like they are far away, even when they are almost at your feet."
The new species of ground-warbler resembles the other two species of ground-warblers in the Philippines, so it wasn't initially recognized as a different species. Examination of its DNA was key to differentiating the new ground-warbler. The DNA sequence data was collected in KU Biodiversity Institute's Molecular Phylogenetics Laboratory.
The new bird species' scientific name honors Max Thompson, a retired professor from Southwestern College in Winfield and a research associate in the KU Biodiversity Institute. The research was published in the August issue of The Condor, a scientific journal of the Cooper Ornithological Society.