The Return of the World's Least Known Bird

After a single specimen of Large-billed Reed warbler (Acrocephalus orinus) billed as the world's least known bird, was found in Himachal Pradesh, India in 1867, the species was not seen again until 2006. A live bird was trapped in Thailand in 2006. The bird has remained an enigmatic figure.

Now a breeding site of the bird has been found in Tajikistan by scientists. Ornithologists Dr Raffael Aye and Mr Manuel Schweizer of the Society for Field Ornithology and Bird Protection in Central Asia, and Dr Stephan Hertwig of the Natural History Museum in Bern, Switzerland have discovered eight individual large-billed reed warblers living at three different riverine woodland sites in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. This is the first confirmed breeding site of the species since its discovery by science.

Conservationists around the world are elated by the discovery.