Bird Not Seen in Twenty Years

Rediscovering a lost species is exciting, and important for boosting conservation efforts. However, it is not for the faint of heart. An international team of scientists traversed 75 miles of steep mountain terrain to capture the first recorded photos of a bird once considered lost. The yellow-crested helmetshrike (Prionops alberti) was listed as a ‘lost bird’ by the American Bird Conservancy because it hadn’t been seen by scientists in almost 20 years.

That did not deter a group of scientists from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They embarked on a six-week expedition to the Itombwe Massif mountain range in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo alongside a group of Congolese researchers from the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles. The team trekked by foot for over 75 miles to survey all of the birds, amphibians, and reptiles they found along the way.     READ MORE...