A team of scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, and other groups have discovered a new species of bird with distinct plumage（翅膀，羽毛） and a loud call living not in some remote jungle, but in a capital city of 1.5 million people. Called the Cambodian tailorbird（缝叶莺） (Orthotomus chaktomuk), the previously¹ undescribed species was found in Cambodia's urbanized capitol Phnom Penh and several other locations just outside of the city including a construction site. It is one of only two bird species found solely² in Cambodia. The other, the Cambodian laughingthrush, is restricted to the remote Cardamom Mountains.

 

Scientists describe the new bird in a special online early-view issue of the Oriental Bird Club's journal Forktail. Authors include: Simon Mahood, Ashish John, Hong Chamnan, and Colin Poole of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Jonathan Eames of BirdLife International; Carl Oliveros and Robert Moyle of University of Kansas; Fred Sheldon of Louisiana State University; and Howie Nielsen of the Sam Veasna Centre.

 

The wren-sized gray bird with a rufous cap and black throat lives in dense³, humid lowland scrub in Phnom Penh and other sites in the floodplain. Its scientific name 'chaktomuk' is an old Khmer word meaning four-faces, perfectly⁴ describing where the bird is found: the area centered in Phnom Penh where the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac Rivers come together.

 

Only tiny fragments of floodplain scrub remain in Phnom Penh, but larger areas persist just outside the city limits where the Cambodian Tailorbird is abundant. The authors say that the bird's habitat is declining and recommend that the species is classified as Near Threatened under the IUCN's Red List. Agricultural and urban expansion could further affect the bird and its habitat. However, the bird occurs in Baray Bengal Florican Conservation Area, where WCS is working with local communities and the Forestry⁵ Administration to protect the Bengal florican and other threatened birds.

 

This same dense habitat is what kept the bird hidden for so long. Lead author Simon Mahood of WCS began investigating the new species when co-author Ashish John, also of WCS, took photographs of what was first thought to be a similar, coastal⁶ species of tailorbird at a construction site on the edge of Phnom Penh. The bird in the photographs initially⁷ defied identification. Further investigation⁸ revealed that it was an entirely⁹ unknown species.

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