A small warbler from China, a cryptic species of owl from the Middle East, and a tiny tapaculo from South America are just three of the incredible bird species discovered in 2015.
1. Sichuan bush warbler (Locustella chengi) from China:
The Sichuan bush warbler (Locustella chengi), Laojun Shan, China. Image credit: Per Alström et al.
The Sichuan bush warbler belongs to Locustellidae, a family of insectivorous songbirds.
It is a relatively small bird with an average length of 13 cm and weight of 10 g. The wing length is 5.5 cm, and the tail is 5.7 cm long.
This new bird is exceedingly secretive and difficult to spot as its preferred habitat is dense brush and tea plantations.
According to scientists, it is endemic to China, breeding in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei and northwest Hunan, with a single record from NW Jiangxi.
2. Perijá tapaculo (Scytalopus perijanus) from Colombia and Venezuela:
The Perijá tapaculo (Scytalopus perijanus). Image credit: Andres M. Cuervo.
The Perijá tapaculo is a small bird with a buffy belly, gray back, and brown nape. Its song and calls are distinctly different from those of other tapaculos.
Its high level of genetic divergence from its closest relatives suggests that that its high mountain habitat has isolated it from its cousins for a significant amount of time, according to an international group of ornithologists led by Dr Jorge Enrique Avendaño of the Universidad de los Andes.
This species is known from humid montane and elfin forests (1,600–3,225 m elevation) of Colombia and Venezuela.
3. Desert tawny owl (Strix hadorami) from the Middle East:
Strix sp. in the Judean desert of Israel, probably the Desert Tawny Owl (Strix hadorami). Image credit: © Thomas Krumenacker, www.krumenacker.de.
The desert tawny owl belongs to the earless owl genus, Strix. It is a medium-sized owl, 30 to 33 centimeters long, and weighing 140 to 220 grams.
It resembles the Hume’s owl (Strix butleri) and the tawny owl (Strix aluco) in plumage pattern and proportions.
This bird lives in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, from Wadi Rabdeit, close to the border with Sudan, north to Mons Porphyrites, northwest of the port of Hurghada, as well as the Sinai Desert, e.g. around St Katherine’s Monastery, through southern and eastern Israel, in the Negev and Judean Deserts, to Jordan, where apparently confined to the eastern fringe of the Jordan Valley and the Rum Desert in the southeast of the country, thence south across western and, more locally, northern, central and northeastern Saudi Arabia, apparently throughout Yemen, and east to southwest Omani Dhofar.
4. Inaguan lyretail (Calliphlox lyrura) from the Bahamas:
Calliphlox evelynae subsp. Image credit: New Jersey Birds / CC BY-SA 2.0.
The Inaguan lyretail was formerly grouped as a subspecies of the Bahama woodstar but is now considered a distinct species.
This bird belongs to the North American branch of the bee hummingbird group Mellisugini.
According to a group of ornithologists led by Dr Christopher James Clark of the University of California, Riverside, it occurs only on the islands of Great and Little Inagua.
5. Australian little penguin (Eudyptula novaehollandiae):
The Australian little penguin (Eudyptula novaehollandia), Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia. Image credit: J.J. Harrison / CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Australian little penguin stands at an average height of 12 inches (30 cm) and has a weight of 1.15 kg.
The species is widely distributed in Australia – from Western Australia along the southern coast of Australia up to New South Wales.
It is also present in Otago, in the remote southeast corner of New Zealand’s South Island.
6. Cape parrot (Poicephalus robustus) from South Africa:
This is a male Cape parrot (Poicephalus robustus). Image credit: Cyril Laubscher.
The Cape parrot, formerly a subspecies of Poicephalus robustus parrot, was raised to a full species by a team of scientists from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The species is endemic to South Africa.
7. Paragallinula, a new monotypic genus:
The lesser moorhen (Paragallinula angulata). Image credit: Mark Tittley, via George Sangster et al, doi: 10.5852/ejt.2015.153.
Paragallinula is a new monotypic genus described for what was previously known as Gallinula angulata (lesser moorhen).
