A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a bird watcher in Colombia after disappearing for more than a decade.
The Santa Marta hummingbird, a large hummingbird found only in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species would become extinct as tropical forests that inhabited had been largely cleared for agriculture.
But ornithologists are celebrating the rediscovery of Campylopterus phainopeplus after an experienced local birder caught one on camera. It is only the third time the species has been documented: the first was in 1946 and the second in 2010, when researchers captured the first photos of the species in the wild.
Yurgen Vega, who saw the hummingbird while working with conservation organizations Selva, ProCAT Colombia and the World Parrot Trust to study endemic birds in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, said he was “overcome with emotion” when he saw the bird.
“The sighting was a complete surprise,” he said. “When I saw the hummingbird for the first time, I immediately thought of the Santa Marta sandpiper. I couldn’t believe he was waiting there for me to take out my camera and start shooting. I was almost convinced it was the species, but as I felt so overcome with excitement, I preferred to be cautious; it could have been the lazuli sabre, which is often confused with the Santa Marta sabre. But once we saw the footage, we knew it was true.”
The Santa Marta species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is on the Top 10 “Most Wanted” list of conservation organization Re:wild’s Search for Lost Birds, a worldwide effort to find species that have not been seen for more than 10 years. The bird is so rare and elusive that John C Mittermeier, director of endangered species outreach at the American Bird Conservancy, likened the sighting to “seeing a ghost.”
The hummingbird Vega saw was a male, identified by its emerald green feathers, bright blue throat, and curved black bill. It was perched on a branch, vocalizing and singing, which behavioral scientists believe is associated with courtship and territory defense.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia is home to a wealth of wildlife, including 24 species of birds found nowhere else. But scientists estimate that only 15% of the mountain forest is intact. It is hoped that the surprise sighting of the Santa Marta sandpiper will help protect its remaining habitat, benefiting the many different species found there.
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“This finding confirms that we still know very little about many of the most vulnerable and rare species out there, and more investment is imperative to better understand them,” said Esteban Botero-Delgadillo, director of conservation science at Selva: Research. for conservation in the Neotropics. “It is knowledge that drives action and change; we cannot preserve what we do not understand.
“The next step is to get out there and look for stable populations of this species, trying to better understand where it occurs and what the most critical threats are in situ. Of course, this has to involve people in local communities and local environmental authorities and regional, so that together we can start a research and conservation program that can have a real impact.”