babbler

He and Mr. Akbar hope to use the black-browed babbler’s discovery to build greater local interest in nature, and to bring tourist dollars to the region.

For the first time in 170 years, researchers reported last week that a black-browed babbler has been found in Indonesia.

“I was confused when we got the pictures, because it looked a bit like the Horsfield’s babbler, but it didn’t really fit,” Mr. Trisiyanto said.

The photos more closely matched an illustration of a black-browed babbler — a bird listed in Mr. Trisiyanto’s guidebook as possibly extinct.

As soon as Covid-19 travel restrictions lift, he and his colleagues plan to mount an expedition to study the black-browed babbler.