Mahood, SP; A.J.I. John; J.C. Eames; C.H. Oliveros; R.G. Moyle;Hong Chamnan; C.M. Poole; H. Nielsen; F.H. Sheldon (2013). "A new species of lowland tailorbird (Passeriformes: Cisticolidae: Orthotomus) from the Mekong floodplain of Cambodia". Forktail 29: 1–14.
Based on distinctive morphological and vocal characters we describe a new species of lowland tailorbird Orthotomus from dense humid lowland scrub in the floodplain of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers of Cambodia. Genetic data place it in the O. atrogularis–O. ruficeps–O. sepium clade. All data suggest that the new species is most closely related to O. atrogularis, from which genetic differences are apparently of a level usually associated with subspecies. However the two taxa behave as biological species, existing locally in sympatry and even exceptionally in syntopy, without apparent hybridisation. The species is known so far from a small area within which its habitat is declining in area and quality. However, although birds are found in a number of small habitat fragments (including within the city limits of Phnom Penh), most individuals probably occupy one large contiguous area of habitat in the Tonle Sap floodplain. We therefore recommend it is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. The new species is abundant in suitable habitat within its small range. Further work is required to understand more clearly the distribution and ecology of this species and in particular its evolutionary relationship with O. atrogularis.
Last summer, bird-watchers confirmed the discovery of a new species of bird in Cambodia: Orthotomus chaktomuk, or the Cambodian tailorbird. It was not an event of particular biological significance (15 new species of birds were discovered in the Amazon in August alone) but it was striking for one reason in particular: This species of tailorbird was discovered not in an unspoiled rain forest but within the limits of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh — a city the size of Philadelphia.
We don’t typically think of the city as a likely habitat for natural life — save rats, roaches and pigeons (but more on them later) — let alone as a hiding place for an undiscovered species of bird. But a new paper, published last week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, belies that notion. A team of 24 researchers has surveyed birds and plants in 147 cities, and found that cities much more closely resemble their native habitats than they resemble each other. The flora and fauna of East London, for example, would be more familiar to a farmer who had lived on the Thames a thousand years ago than to a modern-day visitor from Brooklyn or Hong Kong. While this might seem like a minor discovery to some, it’s one that actually forces us to reconsider the environmental impact of the city.
The idea for the study, led by Myla Aronson of Rutgers, was simple: Compare urban data on plant and bird species with range maps to see how closely a city reflects its ecological birthright. (Anything intentionally planted doesn’t count.) With help from University of California Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the researchers compiled the largest-ever global data set of urban birds and plants, from cities in 36 countries and on six continents.
What the researchers found was a stunning level of native diversity in cities. The median city in the study has about 110 species of birds, of which over 95 percent are considered native; and 766 species of plant, 70 percent of which would have been growing there before urbanization. Ecologically speaking, cities are not replicable, concrete monoliths. Rather, each has a unique “bioprofile” — a kind of ecological fingerprint — that belies the notion of an environmental dead zone.