Bald-Headed, Pink-Faced Songbird Discovered

July 29, 2009 -- A bald-headed songbird with a pink, nearly featherless face and distinctive calls has just been found in a rugged region of Laos, according to scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Melbourne who made the discovery.

Aside from its unique characteristics, the avian is noteworthy because it is the only known bald songbird in Asia.

The find additionally marks the first description in over 100 years of a new Asian species of bulbul, since the songbird has been placed in that family of birds. This bulbul was named Pycnonotus hualon, with "hualon" being the Lao word for "bald-headed."

Hardly a shy and retiring bird, the bald-headed bulbul foraged and noisily moved about the researchers during the day, making them wonder how this eye-catching bird went undiscovered for so long.

"Certainly one reason is that the bird appears to be truly restricted to some very harsh and inaccessible terrain in Indochina," Peter Clyne told Discovery News. Clyne is the assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Asia Program.

Funded by a local copper and gold mining company, researchers Iain Woxvold, Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins recently surveyed birds at Pha Lom, a limestone outcrop in Laos. That's when the bald-headed beauty caught their eye.

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"The bird had alighted directly overhead in a small, leafless tree, where it remained for two to three minutes, feeding casually on small fruits and cocking its head to gain a clear view of the observer," the researchers report in the latest issue of Forktail, the journal of the Oriental Bird Club.

Before long, the songbird was "joined by another, similar bird. The duo flew off soon after."

More detailed analysis of the bird determined that, in addition to its bald head and pink face, it is thrush-sized with a greenish-olive body, light-colored breast and "bluish skin" around the eye extending to the bill.

P. hualon appears to be primarily tree-dwelling, but the birds were often spotted settling on the limestone substrate, "such as on the edge of a precipice or on jagged crags in steep terrain."