Blue-eyed Ground Dove rediscovered after 74 years

Photo by Rafael Bessa

AMAZING DISCOVERY IN BRAZIL

The Blue-eyed  Ground Dove (Columbia cyanopis) was re-discovered in Brazil in 2015 after a 74-year absence from the scientific record.   Sarah Gilman has reported in the summer 2017  issue of Living Bird magazine that 12 of the birds were discovered more than 600 miles away from where the previous one was seen in 1941.   Photos by its latter-day discoverer, ornithologist Rafael Bessa, show the bird's back as an unspectacular greenish-brown, while its head, breast and tail were a muted, ruddy orange, blending into a creamy belly and a set of bony pink feet.   Its eyes were arresting pools of spectacular cobalt blues, as were small half moons of the same blue dabbed on its wings.   The story is featured online in the latest Cornell Lab eNews.
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BarrytheBirder