A new bird species has been discovered on the Indonesian island of Babar, and that discovery has a Belgian twist. It was the Ghent ornithologist Philippe Verbelen who made the first sound recordings of the fantail on Babar in 2009. It now appears that it is a different, endemic species: the bird only occurs on that island.
Source: Belga
In August 2009, the resident of Ghent went to Babar, an island that is part of a vast Indonesian archipelago, to record the sound of a species of owl. “No one had been to Babar to study birds for more than a hundred years,” Verbelen explains. “The island was then only accessible by a multi-day boat trip.” Verbelen then made photographs and audio recordings of what he believed to be the tanimbar fantail (Rhipidura fuscorufa), without realizing that it was a new species.
The penny only fell much later to two Britons, James Eaton and Alex Berryman, who discovered that the bird’s song is very different from that of the tanimbar fantail. Their scientific article on the animal was published last week in ‘The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club’, a peer-reviewed journal. They propose to call the bird the ‘cheery fantail’ in English and ‘Rhipidura laguceria’ in Latin, after its cheerful-sounding song. In Dutch it means ‘cheerful fan tail’.
Song is an important criterion for dividing birds into species. After all, it is through their song that birds recognize each other: when a bird hears a fellow bird singing, it responds to let them know that it is also in the territory. While researching the new fantail, audio recordings of the bird were collected and played at both Babar and Tanimbar.
The recordings provoked a strong reaction from the fantail to Babar, but did not provoke a reaction from the tanimbar fantail. The song was then statistically analyzed, which showed that the Babar fantail and the Tanimbar fantail have completely different song patterns: an argument that they are a new species.
Discoveries
In 2025, a new species was already described on Babar: the dwarf honeyeater. Even then it was Verbelen who made the first photos and sound recordings of the bird. “Until recently, Babar was not on the radar of bird watchers, because there were no endemic species. That has now changed,” says Verbelen.
To save those species that only live there, part of the nature on those specific islands must be preserved
“It also shows that Indonesia’s forests are incredibly important for biodiversity. They are being destroyed at a staggering rate without us realizing what animals live there,” he says. “To save those species that only live there, part of the nature on those specific islands must be preserved. Those species have no interest in a reserve.”
Verbelen has worked for Greenpeace since 1992, where he is involved in campaigns to protect primary forests in Canada, Southeast Asia and Central Africa. At the time of the discovery in 2009, he had taken a sabbatical to travel for a year in Indonesia and study birds in tropical rainforests.