and Dusky Tetrak
John Mittermayer
A survey in the forests of Madagascar uncovered three individuals, confirming the existence of a rare bird that hadn’t been seen for 24 years.
A sighting of the dusky tetraka, a small forest bird that lives on the ground, may prompt a rewrite of ornithology textbooks. For this bird was seen on the rocky bank of a mountain stream.
Dim Tetraka (Xanthomicsis tenebrosa), the yellow-throated olive bird was included in the top 10 “Most Wanted” list by Search for Lost Birds, a conservation collaboration launched in 2021.
Since December, three individuals have been sighted by two teams of the charity The Peregrine Fund. The expedition took place in the forests of the high mountain slopes, as most of Madagascar’s remaining forest areas are located here.
The first team found individuals near streams on the island’s Masoala Peninsula using mist nets, fine meshes suspended between trees to encourage birds to entangle. Nets are checked frequently and birds are released unharmed.
The second team’s efforts were hampered by the discovery that much of the target area near Andapa had become vanilla plantations.
But when the team switched to lower elevations, about 800 meters above sea level, John Mittermaier of the American Wild Bird Conservation Society spotted two birds flitting among the undergrowth of a stream. rice field. “It’s a very exciting moment, that you’ve been looking for something for a long time and it’s there,” he says. “After that, it felt like a dream.”
The next day, the team caught what appeared to be one of the same pair in a mistnet and confirmed it was the correct species.
Peregrine Fund’s Lily-Arison Rene de Roland said the confirmed sightings should help efforts to protect the bird’s habitat.
Mittermeyer says that if its habitat is a stream, the sound of rapid currents can drown out its call, so this may be the reason why it hasn’t been seen for so long.
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