Several fresh specie of bird have been discovered in the Himalayas on the molding between India and China . They were first identified by researchers when a difference in the song of various thrush , thought to be the same species , was observe . The unexampled study , release in the journalAvian Research , details the serendipitous discovery .
The plain - backed thrush , Zoothera mollissima , was long thought to occupy a orotund home ground across the northern regions of the Amerind subcontinent , particularly in the dramatic Himalayan deal reach . Also establish in Bhutan , Thailand , Myanmar and Vietnam , it has been exhaustively studied by ornithologists and definitively categorized .
However , an jaunt to the forests of the Himalayas has effectively transfer the means research worker see the evolution of thrushes in the full region . The breakthrough date back to 1999 , when Professor Per Alström , a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden , was trekking in the country .
“ We noted that there were two unlike group of what was previously call the obviously - backed thrush , that occurred at different EL , in different habitats , ” Alström toldBBC News . The first group of birds , ground far above the tree diagram line in the mountains , had a rather unpleasant birdsong : It was harsh and somewhat coarse - sounding .
The set of thrush found low down , mostly within the thick-skulled wood , spill the beans a far more tuneful sound . At a glimpse , the research worker could not find any straightaway obvious conflict in plumage or body shape . But only a limited number of observation had been made of the lower - living thrush , so further expeditions were deport , and a comprehensive study on regional thrushes was undertaken . specimen of various thrushes from around the world , include examples from 15 different museums , were also canvas .
The three unexampled species of thrush . ( A ) the alpine thrush , Z. mollissima ; ( barn ) the Himalayan woods thrush , Z. salimalii ; ( C ) the Sichuan forest thrush , Z. griseiceps . Alström et al./Avian Research
elaborated DNA analysis revealed what the songs had propose : There aretwo completely different speciesof patently - backed thrush in the Himalayas . In addition , it revealed they had diverged from a common ascendent several million years ago .
The mountain - dwelling motley , now known as the alpine thrush , was what was originally classified as the plainly - stake thrush . It has long legs and a long tail ( proportionally ) than the timber - dwelling equivalent weight , both of which are more useful for navigation in open environment . As this was the “ original , ” it will get to keep theZ. mollissimascientific name . The forest salmagundi will now be calledZoothera salimalii .
As luck would have it , the investigator also bumble across a third , new , close relate thrush species . The Sichuan timber thrush , found within nearby China , was antecedently considered a zep - specie of the patently - back up thrush .
However , with an even more musically pleasant song than its Himalayan cousins , and with a distinctly different genetic key signature , it was view deserve of its own species appointment : Zoothera griseiceps . So out of one original species , three discoverieshave been made .
come across Modern birds is indeed a rare thing in the New reality , with this new enquiry representing the fourth species of boo uncovering in India since its independency in 1947 . In thelast 15 years , rough five Modern species have been come upon per year , in the first place in the dull wood of South America .
