Bird considered extinct since 1882 is seen on video in Papua New Guinea

A bird considered extinct 140 years ago has been rediscovered in the forests of Papua New Guinea. The black-naped pheasant pigeon was first and last documented by scientists in 1882, according to a press release from the nonprofit organization Re:wild, which helped fund the search effort.

Rediscovering the bird required an expedition team to spend a grueling month on Fergusson, an island in the D’Entrecasteaux archipelago in eastern Papua New Guinea where the bird was originally documented. The team consisted of local staff from the National Museum of Papua New Guinea, as well as international scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Bird Conservancy.

Fergusson Island is covered in rugged, mountainous terrain – making the expedition especially challenging for scientists. Many community members told the team that they had not seen the black-necked pheasant pigeon in decades, the press release reads. But just two days before the researchers left the island, a camera captured images of the exceptionally rare bird.

“After a month of searching, seeing those first pictures of the pheasant pigeon was like finding a unicorn,” John C. Mittermeier, director of the American Bird Conservancy’s lost birds program and co-leader of the expedition, said in the statement. “It’s the kind of moment you’ve dreamed of all your life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.”

The black-naped pheasant pigeon is a large ground-dwelling pigeon with a broad tail, according to the release.

Scientists still know little about the species and believe that the population is small and decreasing. Insight from local residents was crucial for scientists to track down the elusive bird.

“It wasn’t until we reached the villages on the west slope of Mount Kilkerran that we started to find hunters who had seen and heard the pheasant pigeon,” said Jason Gregg, a conservation biologist and co-leader of the expedition team, at the launch. “We became more confident about the bird’s local name, which is ‘Auwo’, and we felt we were getting closer to the core habitat where the black-naped pheasant pigeon lives.”

They placed a total of 12 camera traps on the slopes of Mount Kilkerran, which is the highest mountain on the island. And they placed another eight cameras where local hunters have reported seeing the bird in the past.

A hunter named Augustin Gregory from the mountain village of Duda Ununa provided the final breakthrough that helped scientists locate the pigeon pheasant. Gregory told the team that he had seen the black-naped pheasant pigeon in an area with “steep mountain ranges and valleys,” the press release reads. And he heard the bird’s characteristic songs. So the expedition team placed a camera on a 3,200-foot-high ridge near the Kwama River above Duda Ununa, according to the statement. And finally, as the trip was ending, they captured footage of the bird walking on the forest floor.