May 2010: A new species of bird for science has been discovered and it has now been named after a leading conservation family. The new species of antpitta, native to Colombia, South America, was announced last week in a ceremony at the residence of the Colombian Ambassador, Carolina Barco. The bird is named Fenwick's Antpitta (Grallaria fenwickorum), after American Bird Conservancy (ABC) President George Fenwick and his family.
The announcement was made after a comprehensive two-year study and review process following the bird's discovery in 2008. The capture and evaluation process itself was remarkable in that it is one of the first times that a new species for science has been described from an individual captured, banded, measured, photographed, sampled for DNA, and then released alive back into the wild.
‘I am deeply honored by this naming. I know it reflects in equal parts on the contributions of both my family and the ABC organization, both of which have sought to further bird conservation efforts in Colombia,' Dr George Fenwick said.
‘I am especially pleased that this effort was achieved without the loss of the bird's life. Rare and special birds such as this should not have to be sacrificed to this process,' he added.
‘Your family and ABC have done much in the past 15 years in the name of Colombian bird conservation, and I look forward to continued great accomplishments in the decades to come,' said Ambassador Barco.
The bird that provided the so-called ‘holotype' for the description was captured in the Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve located on the Paramo del Sol massif in the western Andes of Colombia. The reserve is managed by Fundación ProAves - Colombia's leading conservation organization and an ABC partner.
The 11,322 acre reserve, founded in 2005, is known for a stunning array of threatened birds, including the Critically Endangered Dusky Starfrontlet that was rediscovered in 2004 after being "lost" for more than 50 years, and which provided the initial impetus for the Fenwick family's support to establish the bird reserve.
The new bird species inhabits a highly restricted area of montane cloud forest where dwarf bamboo thickets thrive on rich volcanic soils on the less-humid eastern-facing slopes; a habitat that has undergone extensive clearance for pasturelands in recent decades. The bird has been proposed as Critically Endangered under IUCN-World Conservation Union criteria, with a population described as extremely small and of great conservation concern, making it a priority for ABC.
