Several new species of colorful, tropical sunbirds have been discovered by Zoologists from Trinity College Dublin.
The Wakatobi sunbird is a new species that lives on the tiny Wakatobi Islands. The olive-backed sunbirds and black sunbirds were found to belong to multiple unrecognized species.
These findings have important implications for our understanding of evolution.
Sunbirds look similar to the American hummingbirds and are found in the tropics. Male sunbirds have bright feathers that shine in the sun.
Zoologists have looked at sunbirds' plumage for hundreds of years and have named over 140 of them. The zoologists have found that the family is even more diverse than they had thought.
The work was done by researchers from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences and the University of Halu Oleo in Indonesia and has just been published in a journal. The evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace were published in 1858.
Wallace's studies of animals across the islands of present-day Indonesia were used by the international research team to retrace his steps.
A boundary between deep and shallow seas is referred to as Wallace's Line. The sunbird was found all the way from China to Australia with Wallace's Line in the middle of its range.
The populations on either side are actually different from Wallace's original predictions. The black sunbird is known to be subject to Wallace's Line, but new research has shown that the population around Sulawesi is different from the one in Newguinea.
The olive-backed sunbird is quite large for a small bird. The Wakatobi sunbird is only found in the tiny Wakatobi Islands, off the coast of the larger Sulawesi. The famous case of the Galpagos is an example of a small island producing a unique species.
Two species of white-eye birds from the same area have been identified by the Trinity School of Natural Sciences as a Key Biodiversity Area.
The Wakatobi sunbird has a higher-pitched song and shorter wings compared to the olive-backed sunbird. The sunbird was isolated on the Wakatobi Islands due to its short wings.
It's amazing that there are still species waiting to be found in this region, which is important to evolutionary biology. I'm thrilled that we've added to the list of known species from this wonderful part of the world, it's the kind of thing I wanted to study when I was a kid. This study has allowed for the development of new techniques. Wallace's original predictions are supported by new discoveries.
The second author is Dr. David Kelly. The identification of the Wakatobi sunbird reminds us that there is more to life than meets the eye. The bird was found in the scrubby margins of towns and villages. The children of the Wakatobi should be able to enjoy these birds for a long time.
More information: Fionn Ó Marcaigh et al, Small islands and large biogeographic barriers have driven contrasting speciation patterns in Indo-Pacific sunbirds (Aves: Nectariniidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2022). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac081 Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
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