![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimnryOoEuV98FbSHhAJTlL7RYbATgQ30I44m5-6qiyW5NNaYF96LwRqK8XCSJHpD7he_Nqc3an7CNeXW9XdafsWug-kCBcWhPdCptsjTxfCfj6QzbF1nk7Sw4uClC7E6vG5ggcmeja4cQ0/s1600-rw/Bulbuls.jpg) |
Newly-identified Cream-eyed bulbul, previously thought to be a variant of the Cream-vented bulbul.
Credit: Subir Shakya, Louisiana State University
Department of Biological Sciences |
New Bird Species Discovered by LSU Researchers
A very nice example of how speciation between closely-related species occupying the same or overlapping ranges is maintained, is illustrated by the discovery of a new species of bird hiding in plain sight in Borneo.
Over most of its range, the Cream-vented bulbul,
Pycnonotus simplex, a rather drab olive-brown bird, has white eyes but on the island of Borneo it was thought to have occurred in two forms; the locally more common red-eyed form and the 'normal' white-eyed form.
Now, after painstaking analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of both red and white-eyed bulbuls and other related species, a team of researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU) led by PhD student, Subir Shakya, has shown that the white-eyed form on Borneo is a newly-identified species, genetically distinct from the red-eyed Borneo form and the white-eyed form found elsewhere. They have named this new species,
Pycnonotus pseudosimplex.
Their paper was published a few days ago in the
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club.