The Sira Barbet, a colorful, fruit-eating bird native to the Peruvian Andes, was described in a paper in the July 2012 issue of The Auk, the official publication of the American Ornithologists’ Union. The bird, discovered in October 2008, has never before been described by science.
The new species was discovered during an expedition led by Michael Harvey, Glenn Seeholzer, and Ben Winger, young ornithologists and Cornell University graduates. They were accompanied by co-author Daniel Caceres, a graduate of the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin in Arequipa, Peru, and local Asheninka guides.
The new species was discovered on a ridge of montane cloud forest in the Cerros del Sira range in the eastern Andes. A colorful, fruit-eating bird with a black mask, pale belly and scarlet breast, the Sira Barbet takes its scientific name, Capito fitzpatricki, from Cornell Lab of Ornithology executive director Dr. John W. Fitzpatrick.
New bird species discovered in Peru
