Academics take aim at Borneo bird
Species could be first to be described in 100 years
Although the birds known as “spectacled flowerpeckers” have been spotted and photographed a few times by ornithologists in other parts of Borneo, notably in the Danum Valley in Sabah, it has never been collected for scientific study.
The bird is most probably unique to Borneo and has largely evaded detection by inhabiting the jungle canopy.
The Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Research at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam proposes to capture and collect several specimens of the species and give it a scientific name.
The lead scientist of the proposed study will be PhD candidate Hanyrol Ahmad Sah, assisted by Mahdi Hussainmiya, who also spotted the bird in Belait district, under the supervision of Professor Ulmar Grafe. If successfully collected, the spectacled flowerpecker would be the first entirely new endemic bird to be formally described in Borneo in more than 100 years.
Its description would entice numerous ornithologists from around the world to visit Brunei to catch a glimpse of this rare endemic bird thereby promoting Brunei as a highvalue tourism destination, officials said.
