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Monday, October 22, 2012

Sillem's Mountain Finch rediscovered

There are some birds which appear out of the mists of nowhere and then slip back into obscurity just as quickly.

Large-billed Reed Warbler was one, until it's recent rediscovery, singing happily in Afghanistan and apparently quite widespread across Central Asia.

Nechisar Nightjar, known from a single Ethiopian road kill, and  Red Sea Cliff Swallow, known from a single bird killed at a Sudanese lighthouse, are two more that spring to mind.

And Sillem's Mountain Finch, a species first described in 1991 from two specimens which had spent 62 years gathering dust in a drawer of similar looking finches, having been collected in the Karakoram mountains by a Dutch expedition. A not-very-exciting-looking dull grey bird, from a very exciting but hard to get to part of the world. And then never seen again.

Until this summer, when a passing wilderness trekker in western Qinghai had a spot of foot poisoning and took a day out to rest, and snapped some (brilliant) photos of some finches feeding near his tent.


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