A bird that hadn't ever been photographed or recorded was finally documented this summer in the remote reaches of a small island in Oceania, one of the top bird-watching destinations in the world.
The Mussau triller hadn't been spotted since 1979 when a group of birders set eyes on the multicolored cuckooshrike in June, Birds of the World reported. The adventurers took photos and recorded sounds of nine trillers in three flocks.
The beautiful bird, native to Mussau Island of Papua New Guinea, has distinctive white streaks on its black wings and a chin, chest, and belly that is half white with a rust-color bottom.
The group, led by Joshua Bergmark, was an envoy of the Search for Lost Birds project, a collaboration of the American Bird Conservancy, BirdLife International, and Re:wild.
"Usually, you often hear these birds before you see them. In this case one of the clients saw it first before he heard anything," Bergmark told Birds of the World. "They were just moving around with the other birds and feeding, doing their own thing while we watched them."
On a BirdGuides summary of the news, a commenter pointed out that a detailed description of what seemed to be a sighting of a dozen Mussau trillers was documented in 1999 and that the species was heard as well in 2016.
Still, the bird had not been spotted for decades — in part because it likes to hide. Its habitat is tall trees in the middle of the island's dense forest, and that has made it mostly inaccessible.
But the triller is also losing that habitat to logging, with the forest cut back by 7.2% from 2020 to 2023; the birders were able to find the animal by traversing a logging road, Birds of the World reported.
The outlet also noted the birding community's importance in the work of Search for Lost Birds, which found the dusky tetraka last year in Madagascar for the first time in 25 years. This and similar conservation efforts — including a habitat restoration that led the Least Bell's Vireo to return to Los Angeles — prove essential to understanding these magnificent creatures that can fly through the air.
"It is vitally important to check up on island species, like the triller," John Mittermeier, the director of the Search for Lost Birds at ABC, told Birds of the World. "We don't know how a bird like this responds to these habitat changes caused by logging and invasive species. The fact that Josh and his group found the triller and confirmed its presence after so many years is stunning news."
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