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Bogor (ANTARA News) - A new bird species named Kacamata Togian or Togian white-eye (Zosterops somadikartai) has been discovered in the Togian Islands, Gulf of Tomini in Central Sulawesi, a University of Indonesia (UI) zoological researcher said.

The species is to be found only in the coastal areas of some of the islands making up the Togian Islands , namely Malenge Island, Batudaka Island and Togian Island, the head of an UI researchers` team, M Indrawan, said here Friday.

Togian white-eye was first found in an expedition in 1996 led by Indrawan and Sunarto, field researchers of the University of Indonesia.

"We observed the species in the field from 1997 to 2003," Indrawan said.

The description of the bird was completed in collaboration with Dr Pamela Rasmussen, a taxonomist specializing in Asian birds from Michigan State University.

Togian white-eyes are small greenish-colored birds which usually also have conspicuous white eye-rings. The birds are very active and travel in small groups.

Indonesia has a number of white-eye or Zosterops species. The Togian white-eye differs from other species most distinctly in that it does not have white eye-rings. It also has red eyes, and soft colors that differ from the colors of other white-eyes.

Unfortunately, when the species began to be noticed by scientists, it was also categorized as an endangered bird based on the cirteria of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), considering its limited number and distribution.

The finding has also established the Togian Islands as an endemic bird area (EBA) under the consensus of BirdLife International that a region with two endemic species automatically becomes an EBA.

Indonesia has 1,598 bird species (not including the recently discovered one) which are mostly to be found in the eastern parts of the country, a senior taxonomist, Prof Somadikarta, said.

There are some 10,000 bird species in the world. Therefore, the finding of a new bird species is always something remarkable, he said. (*)

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