LISU WREN BABBLER

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Context:  Six birdwatchers trekked to a peak in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district in search of the rare and elusive grey-bellied wren babbler. They recorded a potentially new species of songbird they named after the Lisu, the local community.

 Details:

• The grey-bellied wren babbler is mostly found in Myanmar with some birds occurring in adjoining China and Thailand.
• There has been only one previous report of this bird from India when two specimens were collected from Mugafi close to the Myanmar border in 1988. 
• The belly of grey-bellied wren babbler is grey. But all the photos they showed birds with a whitish belly.
• When all the information was put together, the birdwatchers realised they have probably documented a new bird for science — at least a new subspecies, but more likely a new species. The plumage in conjunction with the songs do not match with any known species.
• Establishing and naming a species or subspecies scientifically requires genetic material from these birds to be compared against other wren babbler species. But the team named the bird Lisu wren babbler.

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