Black-Browed Babbler
Imagine being part of a newly founded birdwatching group and rediscovering a bird last confirmed to exist in 1850. This was the experience of a team of Indonesian birdwatchers who came across the black-browed babbler, a wine-red-eyed, brown-and-grey bird about the size of a house sparrow, with a black stripe smeared like eyeliner across its face.
For a bird that allegedly babbles, it’s been awfully quiet for the past 170 years. A museum specimen was all ornithologists had to go on until this rediscovery, made in October 2020. Not much else to be written yet, as the bird’s reappearance is so darn new.
