They Explored Jungle Islands – and Discovered Bird Species We Didn’t Know Before

Researchers have discovered five new species and five new subspecies of songbirds in the small islands of Indonesia – the biggest discovery of its kind in more than a century.

The discovery, published this month in the Science journal, came after a six-week expedition in 2013 and 2014, after ornithologist Frank Rheindt and his team focused on three small islands that weren’t recently explored in-depth.

“They found 10 new things, which is remarkable,” the American Museum of Natural History’s ornithology curator Joel Cracraft, not involved in the study, tells the New York Times’ Karen Weintraub. “It really points to how little we actually know.”

The team climbed 3,600 feet up to Taliabu island’s tallest mountains, spending their mornings documenting birds and their afternoons recording their calls. Rheindt believes that the country’s 20,000 islands have great potential when it comes to the discovery of new species.